


Help! I Need Spider-Man

by lostintheclouds321



Series: Help! I Need Somebody (not just anybody) [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Actually planned, Everyone Loves Peter Parker, Five Plus One, I hate writing karen, In which I'm pretending the sad parts didn't happen, MCU denial, Not Beta Read, Out of Character, but i can grammar, but only because I’m bad at writing, i’m very bad at it, just saying, peter is a combination of the comics and Tom holland, tony stark is on the verge of being a dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-07-06 06:16:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15880242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostintheclouds321/pseuds/lostintheclouds321
Summary: Five times the Avengers asked Spider-Man for help, and the one time they asked Peter Parker for help.





	1. Ant-Man

“I’m barely holding on, Hope!” Ant-Man yelled into his comm. The previous fight had gone on without a hitch, except for the fact that Scott was now on the top of a _very_ high ceiling with no way down. Ant-ony was still retrieving the USB they were here for and Scott’s fingers were slipping fast. He could only hold on for so long.

Almost instantly Hope replied, “Seriously Scott, I’m sure you can get down by yourself.”

Scott shook his head no, even if Hope couldn’t see him, because that’s how much he couldn’t. No matter what, even if he was normal size, if he fell from this spot, he would most definitely perish. “Can’t you just fly up here?” Scott begged.

“I’m sort of in the middle of something right now, Lang,” she forced out. There was a loud thud, a scream, and Hope was beating someone up for sure.

“Aren’t I more important than that shmuck?” He whined.

“This ‘shmuck’ is going to tell me everything I want to know, what do you have for me?”

“Charm?” Scott offered.

“Get off by yourself.”

“I would if I could, but this suit is sort of tight.” There was a click and Scott was now positive that Hope had demolished her comm. Damn.

Scott had to get creative, maybe he could call in a few extra ants to help. Using the ants nearby, Scott had them connect to form a bridge to the wall and climbed down their small brown bodies. Then he was going to have to scale using the tiny crevices in the paint job, this would be a lot easier if he could stick to things.

 

After the mission he returned home to Cassie. “Hey pumpkin!” He picked up the young girl and swung her around, ignoring the soreness in his arms -he often regretted having never been mutated to have super strength or healing like some of the others. Despite his woes, he was glad he didn’t have anything creepy like ant antenna.

“Daddy, did you see the news?” she excitedly burst out.

“Since when are you watching the news?” he demanded; nonetheless, Scott shook his head and as his daughter dragged him to the T.V he muttered, “Knowing my life, I probably lived it.”

Oh, how wrong he was, on the screen was a new hero -Spider-guy or something, a rambling kid- _sticking_ right to the side of the Empire State Building, helicopters surrounded the tower, at the top was a ginormous rat. It almost looked like a parody of King Kong and Scott couldn’t believe his eyes. This was the best turn of luck he’d ever had; just today he’d been wishing he could stick to things and here was this hero proudly demonstrating his technology.

They watched the film and saw how _Spider-Man_ took out the rat -trapping it in a webbed hammock between two buildings- and all Scott could think was that he needed to talk to this dude. He pulled Cassie into his lap and asked, “How’d you like to meet him?”

She instantly broke out into incomprehensible babble about how it would be a dream could true and Scott tried to ignore the sting of jealously for the superhero that had captured his daughter’s heart, “I’m still the best though right?”

Cassie tilted her head as if deep in thought, “I mean, Spider-Man has webs and a really cool suit, so-“

Scott rolled her over and began to tickle her until she, in gasps of air, admitted that her daddy was the _best_ superhero.

“Heck yeah I am. Now let’s go to Queens.”

 

Peter’s day had going great, that is until a mind controlled gigantic rat climbed the Empire State Builiding and Spider-Man had to be called to action. After he ‘wrapped’ it up, he quickly disappeared to an alleyway, the rat had given him a large gash on his side and it _stung_. He _could_ call Mr. Stark, but seeing as one hit had knocked Karen offline and Iron Man _hadn’t_ shown up to baby him, Peter figured he could deal with it on his own.

When he reached down to see how long it was, his hand came back bloody and Peter quickly gave up. He leaned against the damp wall and let his breathing come down to a steady pattern, he could already feel his skin stitch itself together. He would be alright, maybe he would go to Ned’s house to clean it up. While Peter was weighing his options, he didn’t notice the father-daughter duo that came up next to him. That is until the smaller half hurtled toward him to give his a hug, the impact of her stubby arms around his leg shook him out of his thoughts. The older man calmly sauntered over. Peter had no idea who these people were but could already smell trouble. The older man clearly wanted something from him.

“Spider-Man right?”

Peter nodded, wanting to jump to the point.

“Well I’m Scott Lang and I was hoping you could help me.”

Peter looked down at the little girl -who had released him from her death grip- and back up at the man, he looked like a younger, dumbed down version of Tony Stark without the goatee. Strangely, his spider sense wasn’t going off at all.

“Help you with what? No offense, but I can practically feel your hidden motives,” Peter crossed his red clad arms across his chest ignoring the pain from his side as he stretched his torso-and squinted his his eyes.

‘Scott’ shook his arms wildly as if to prove a point, “No, I swear we’ve met before, I’m Ant-Man.”

The man didn’t seem to be lying but Mr. Stark was constantly telling Peter he was too naive, “Prove it.”

Scott closed his eyes and suddenly, out of the cracks in the pavement came hundreds of ants, Peter climbed up the wall a bit and they followed. Peter was not okay with this.

“I get it, please make them go away Mr. Ant-Man.”

Scott appeased him, “So will you help me?”

“What do I get out of it?” Peter asked, he didn’t want to push his limits, but he did have a lot of homework to do and wanted to know if it would be worth his while.

“You’re a nerd right?” Peter’s lenses shot open, how would Ant-Man know? “Don’t worry, I’m around a lot, which brings me to my point, if you help me you get to hang out with Hank and Hope Pym! It doesn’t get better than that for a science geek, right. Plus, you probably want that gash cleaned up, right?”

As much as Peter wanted to prove the man wrong, he couldn’t just turn down the opportunity to get medical help _and_ meet one of his science heroes. (Plus, he had an assignment to interview an influential figure, this would be like killing three birds with one stone.) At least, that’s what he thought until he saw Scott’s van.

“You can’t expect me to get in that? I’m not really looking to be kidnapped and experimented on.”

“Ooooh daddy! Does little mean we can drive the pink one? Pretty please?” The small girl begged.

Scott grimaced, “Seriously Cassie?” He looked at Peter, “This is your fault.”

Ant-Man pulled a wheel out of the car and opened it up, inside were tens of tiny toy cars. He pulled out a small pink Volkswagen Bug and pressed a button on the inside of the van, it zipped down to the size of the bug. Scott put it where the pink car had been. After Scott put down the pink car, Peter watched as it immediately became normal sized and Cassie squealed in delight.

“Spider-Man is sitting in with me!” She declared and ushered Peter into the back (except it was more of a shuffle because they had to pull the front seat forward and Peter was just glad he was flexible).

Soon enough they were on their way.

 

Everything was going up Scott Lang, that was until Spiper-Man told him that he was a mutant.

“What do you mean you just stick to things?”

Spider-Man flinched a bit at the yelling but shrugged. He pressed his chest and the suit fell loose around him, he pulled out his left hand and ‘picked up’ a mug by just putting his flat hand on it.Now Scott really wished he was a mutant. It would’ve made breaking into Hank’s house so much easier. Just as swift as he took his hand out of suit, he put the suit back on.

Just as he did that, Hank himself stepped into the lab. Upon seeing Spiper-Man’s iconic suit, he grinned, it was so slight that Scott wouldn’t have noticed it if he didn’t know the scientist.

“Spider-Man, a pleasure to meet you,” Hank’s voice triggered the vigilante’s head to shoot towards the door where he seemed to completely forget about Scott.

“No! It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Hank Pym, you’re a genius and I actually can’t believe I’m meeting you!” The kid continued to ramble on about something Hank had done but Scott tried to tune it out, he didn’t really care.

After about five minutes of the two talking, Scott had had enough, “Hank, can you help me stick to things with Spider-Man?”

They both quieted but Spider-Man was the first to speak up, “Wait, you want to _stick_ to things? That’s what you wanted help with?”

“Yeah, problem?”

“Well,” Spider-Man looked to the side as if trying to draw strength from the ground, “Sticking is sort of _my_ thing, it’d be sort of weird if Ant-Man started doing it too, y’know. I’d lose my credibility.”

“What if we made something that helped you talk to spiders, that’d be cool. We can do that, right, Hank?”

Both looked towards the graying man, who just nodded.

“But why would I want that?” Spider-Man’s lenses came together in a squint and Scott found himself marveling at the technology before answering.

“I think the question is why _wouldn’t_ you?”

Scott couldn’t let this kid get in the way of his _safety_ \- and he definitely didn’t want to do it for any other reasons, like winning every balance game in the world, or walking on a tightrope across the city. “C’mon kid, just help me with this, I’ll owe you one.”

Just when Scott could’ve sworn the kid was going to give in, “No, it wouldn’t work,” Hank declared, “Your suit’s material wouldn’t be able to support the tiny fibers needed and they most definitely wouldn’t be stable enough to hold you in place. If Spider-Man’s ‘stickiness’ comes from his DNA, then it might take years to replicate it. Biomimicry doesn’t just happen, Scott.”

Spider-Man let out a sigh of relief and Scott shot him a glare.

“Maybe you could just get some suction cups, that should be simple enough for you.” Hank offered and Spider-Man snickered. Scott groaned and left, he’d left his daughter in the care of Hope and had no desire to be around those two nerds, so he left. He didn’t fail to notice that Spider-Man didn’t follow and stayed even till dinner. But even if Spider-Man didn’t help him (and laughed at his misery), Scott didn’t mind. The kid had a way of crawling into others’ hearts, what could he say?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven’t rewatched any marvel movies since IW beacause I know they’ll just make me sad ;^; And I wrote Scott like that because I felt like it (not because I hardly anything from the movie).  
> Jesi~  
> Sorry for any errors, I’ll go over them later but I wrote this on a whim and didn’t have any time to go over it.


	2. Clint and Natasha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint and Natasha need help taking down an arms dealer with a ridiculous name.

Why was Fury so- so stubborn? Clint groaned and looked over at his partner-in-crime Natasha. While she was smart, most of the time, she was often a ‘do-it-yourself’ kinda gal (but don’t tell her he said that). He was stuck between the ideas of bringing it up or just going into the mission regardless. However, when she looked over at him and he stared into her steely gaze, he knew it was something they were both coming to terms with.

“We need a third person,” they said to each other and unison.

Clint’s mouth turned up into a smile, “How about we bring on that Spiderkid? With two of you arachnids we’re sure to succeed.”

Natasha sent him a short glare before nodding sharply, “Why not, I’ve been wanting to know what makes him tick.”

“Yeah, because that’s not creepy at all,” Clint grimaced, sometimes it was hard to forget just how Natasha was raised, super spy or not, sometimes her speech patterns were a bit awkward.

“So how do we find him, we don’t have to ask Stark first, right?”

Clint thought about the two red clad heroes’ relationship, they didn’t seem that close when they’d been at the hangar, so “It should be fine, Stark doesn’t really care about anyone other than himself.”

Natasha looked away, as if she’d seen something Clint hadn’t, but said nothing, “You wanna check the tower first?”

“It’s a plan,” Clint hopped off of the ledge they were sitting on at the compound and waited for Natasha to do whatever show-off flip she wanted to do before heading off. No matter what happened, it sure as hell would be an experience.

 

Natasha was the first to step off of the Quinjet and onto the roof of Avenger’s Tower, Clint was close behind. Upon entering the elevator, Stark’s AI greeted the two spies, “Welcome back, Natasha ‘ _Hottie_ ’ Romanoff and Clint ‘ _Dumbass_ ’ Barton, Mr. Stark is currently in a meeting with King T’Challa, would you like me to alert him of your presence?”

Clint mumbled something about how he wasn’t _that_ stupid, but Natasha followed through with their task, “Not at all, though I _will_ be having a word with him later about that nickname. We’re actually looking for Spider-Man, know where we can find him?”

“Spider-Man does not start patrol until six thirty, or would you like me to call him now?” FRIDAY asked.

“No, we’ll wait, does we have a room in the tower?” Natasha continued. Clint shot her a look of confusion while FRIDAY spat out directions to the vigilante’s room.

As they headed to their destination, Natasha explained, “I told you, I want to know more about this kid, I’m not going to trust someone I don’t know, Clint. If there are any clues in his room I’m going to find them.”

“Nat- Spider-Man’s our sort of teammate now, while I’m usually all about getting dirt on others, I’m pretty sure Stark will kill us if he finds out,” Clint said, trying to convince her to do otherwise.

Natasha simply looked back at him with a glare, “Which is why he won’t find out, I know for a fact that he hasn’t added any surveillance cameras to this section yet and FRIDAY wipes all irrelevant information at the end of the day.”

“How do you know that- y’know, don’t tell me, I’m sure I don’t want to know.” Clint waited a minute, thinking, “Unless it would be good prank mat-“

“No Clint.”

After traversing the almost identical white hallways to Spider-Man’s quarters, Natasha carefully pushed open the door to find a room opposite to what she had expected. She had been anticipating a plain room, one that had been hardly lived in, but Spider-Man’s room had clothes strewn all over and books littering almost every surface. The wall’s were arranged with different posters: Star Wars, the Stark Convention, some blue print for a contraption Natasha didn’t understand, and even an Avenger’s poster.

“Nerd alert,” Clint whispered next to her, “But I don’t exactly get the Avenger’s poster, he _did_ turn down a spot with us.”

Ignoring her partner, she walked over to the built in desk. One of the books seemed to be a college textbook on mechanics, it was stuffed with graph paper every other page and Natasha was starting to understand why the room was so lived in. If whoever Spider-Man was was interesting in this kind of stuff, then of course he would try to spend as much time near Stark as possible.

Though she was equally surprised by the room’s decoration. At the compound, they all started with white sheets and walls. These walls were a dark blue and the bed had a red comforter with matching pillows, one of them with a printed white ‘P’ (but Natasha didn’t need to know _that_ much so she ignored it). She was more surprised by the fact that it was there at all, Spider-Man was new but already had a specially designed bedroom? Natasha was beginning to fear that Stark cared more than they thought he did.

After briskly walking around the room, she’d gathered everything she needed to know. In other cases, she would need to look closer at the shelves or dig through drawers, but this kid was an open book. Almost like a mini-Stark, and Natasha only trusted Stark as far as she could throw him (which was still giving him a lot) but this kid seemed different. Different, but still dangerous. The Avenger’s poster that hung by his bed had been signed by all of them, an event she only faintly remembered happening. Stark had been gathering signatures like his life depended on it, he hadn’t said who it was for but now it was clear, and anyone who could get Stark to willingly do something for them was instantly dangerous.

Just as Natasha opened the door, FRIDAY’s voice came through strong, “Spider-Man is currently active despite it being 3:55, he is fighting a minor villain who goes by King, do you want me to send you his coordinates?”

Clint answered for them both, “Yeah, let’s go meet the nerd.”

 

Peter thanked the stars that King hadn’t come until four, he’d only had to miss ten minutes of decathlon practice and MJ probably wouldn’t kill him that much. On the other hand, King was trying to blow up Queens and was clearly delusional. He kept saying something about how there was only room enough for one royal family in New York and Peter had no idea where his logic was coming from. This was going to be a pain.

Peter was five minutes into webbing mini-bombs into the sky when Karen alerted him of Hawkeye and Black Widow’s arrival. Peter almost didn’t believe it, even when he saw them in the Quinjet. Peter hurled one last bomb into the air and Black Widow threw something at King.

The villain’s body seized up and he instantly fell from his hover board. Throwing away all confusion, Peter made a web to catch King and secured him to it. The police could deal with that later, if the Avengers were here, something bad had to be happening. Peter swung up to the Quinjet, grabbing the hover board on his way.

“What’s going on? Are there aliens? Have the others been kidnapped? Is Mr. Stark okay?”

Hawkeye snickered, “Wow, you really are a nerd, chill out.”

Peter scowled at the name but let it go, MJ had made sure it didn’t bother him by using it every five seconds, “So what brought you to Queens?”

Black Widow was the one to answer, it was curt but scared the living daylights out of the teen, “You.”

“Oh man, I don’t know what I did but I swear-”

“We need your help.”

Peter felt tension leave his shoulders and his adrenaline decrease, he really thought he’d been in trouble, “But- but you’re Avengers,” his head tilted to the side a bit, trying to grasp just _how_ he could help the two heroes, “What do you want _me_ for?”

“Geeze kid, inferiority complex much?” Hawkeye groaned.

“I’m not a kid,” Peter crossed his arms across his chest, he didn’t want to be thought of as less than just because he was younger, and he also didn’t want the Avengers knowing just how much younger he was.

“We have a mission, and we need a third person, you want in?”

“For real?” Peter’s eyes widened and he suddenly felt his spirits lifted, he’d never expected this to happen. Sure, Ant-Man had asked him for help last weekend, but that was more of a science question, this could be a life or death mission and they’d turned to Spider-Man, “I’d love to- but how long will it take, I might need to tell myAu-“ _whoops_ , he’d almost slipped, “Awesome roommate that I won’t make dinner.”

“We’ll have you back for whatever college class you have tomorrow, don’t worry.”

“College?”

“We saw all the textbooks in your room, that’s some pretty advanced stuff,” Hawkeye clarified.

“You went in my room?” Peter was beginning to panic, does that mean they know where he lives? Had his cover been blown?

“Yeah, down at the Stark tower, chillax, man.”

That explained why they thought he was in college. Mr. Stark had gotten him those advanced textbooks when Peter admitted he’d been bored in his science classes, he poured over the books every chance he got. They were fascinating.

“Oh, well, y’know how college can be, lot’s to do,” Peter hated how his voice raised at the lie. Thankfully, the spies didn’t say anything of it, “So where’s the mission?”

“Colorado.” Before Peter could protest the three hour plane ride, the hatch closed behind him and they were flying.

 

Natasha had to admit, Spider-Man took in information like a sponge took in water. She was only worried about how well he’d follow his instructions. They’d finally gotten a location for Dhruv Sinclaire’s base of operations, a man who’d miraculously evaded Shield for months. He stole weapons from their own storage container, taking inspiration from the Vulture and was about to sell them to an open -but illegal- market. Sinclaire was constantly moving but now they were going to wipe him out. Spider-Man was going to plant bombs throughout the facility with Hawkeye while Natasha took care of Sinclaire. They had 7 minutes to cover the whole warehouse before the bombs were synced to go off. There should only be ten other people in the building but they shouldn’t pose a problem. Collateral damage, as Fury had called them. Natasha had to agree, she’d seen one of the factories Sinclaire had been running. Child upon child lined up, contributing to a war they didn’t know existed. Anyone who was affiliated with such a vile man had no right to their life.

It took only three minutes for the plan to go wrong. Natasha should’ve known not to trust Spider-Man, she had been fooled by how simple his room seemed. It gave her the feeling of someone who was normal, not someone who had been warped by the life of taking out villains orthe ever present fear that came with putting yourself in danger. It seemed innocent.

The vigilante hadn’t finished putting all of his bombs in place, but when Natasha looked at her watch, she saw his tracker quickly going in and out of the building. He was helping them. Helping the people who held no regard for the lives of children. Did he not listen when she told him how despicable these people were? Killing Dhruv would be easy, wiping all of his files would be easier with the program Fury had forced Stark to create. And as soon as she was done she would put Spider-Man in his place.

Hawkeye gave her the all clear and Spider-Man wasn’t responding. She rushed out of the building, one minute to detonation and found Spider-Man a safe distance away, guarding a truck which the survivors had to be behind. The building went up as she walked over and worked to fuel her rage.

“What were you thinking Spider-Man? I gave you instructions, all you had to do was follow them!” She barked out.

He didn’t draw back, rather he took a step forward. His hand was tucked behind his backed and Natasha readied herself to pull her gun. “I don’t kill people!”

Was that it? That was why he saved all those people, even if they’d committed terrible, terrible crimes? Natasha didn’t understand, there had to be more.

“I especially don’t kill children, I know you might have had your orders, or needed to get rid of all the evidence, but I’m not a _monster_.” He choked on the last word, as if he were throwing an accusation. Something tugged at his gloved hand and a young girl came out from behind him.

Clint ran over, “What was that Spidey? You could’ve botched the whole-“ Natasha put a hand on his bare shoulder, she nodded down at the kid next to the vigilante and felt her partner’s body recoil at what could have happened. It must have been worse for him, as he had his own kids to take care of. “Nat, what the fuck?” he breathed out.

Even through the mask, Natasha could see that Spider-Man was glaring at them. She had to give Tony that, the lenses were pretty good at conveying emotion. Through her own anger, she felt disgusted with herself. She was as bad as Dhruv if she almost killed that little girl.

“I had no idea,” Natasha insisted, or was it just an excuse? Bile rose up and she swallowed it down. She couldn’t be weak.

At her admission, Spider-Man’s glare lessened, “So you won’t hurt them?”

Natasha’s heart clenched, he really didn’t trust them. They had fallen so low so quickly; her mind fell back to the poster hanging in his room.

“We’re not going to hurt anyone,” Clint promised, “But what do you mean them?” his voice caught in his throat.

Spider-Man turned towards the truck and said softly, “You can all come out now.”

More than two dozen children came out from behind the old rusted truck and Natasha felt like she’d been kicked in the chest. Clint, who covered his feelings with jokes just left it at, “We’re gonna need a bigger Quinjet.”

Sure enough they did. While Clint and Natasha took the Quinjet, Shield sent a larger carrier for the children and Spider-Man (who the children were currently refusing to leave). As the two spies flew back to base, Natasha wondered if she would ever get Spider-Man’s trust back. She knew that as much as she had failed herself, she’d failed Spider-Man as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, I wasn't expecting this to do well at all. (I mean, 100 kudos in one day is good for me) Thank you so much!  
> This chapter felt sort of awkward,I don't really remember much about them so I mostly drew their characters from other fics I've read (dw, I've read a lot).   
> Feel free to leave a comment telling me what you think. I swear Nat and Peter are going to reconcile (just briefly) in the next chapter (t'challa and sam).  
> Jesi~


	3. Sam and T’Challa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> T’Challa needs Spider-Man for some very important business in Wakanda, Sam tags along.

Peter gasped for air. Laying on his back, vulnerable to all, he’d never felt so weak. Sweat rolled down his temple and was quickly absorbed by his mask. His body ached everywhere and he felt, in short, like death. Another heavy breath and Peter was sure he was never going to get back up.

Then, reaching out in front of the bright light above, a hand appeared. Peter clasped it in his own and the figure heaved him up onto his feet. He wobbled a bit, but once he was balanced, let go of the hand, “That was, a lot,” Peter wasn’t used to being out of breath, even when he fought villains, he was usually able to maintain his stamina.

“Well, you’re gonna have to get used to it if you’re going to keep being a hero,” Black Widow really was something else. A force to be reckoned with.

When Black Widow had offered to train him, he’d been wary of the idea. After the mission they’d done together, he’d begun felt uneasy around her. But he’d, nonetheless, accepted the offer. After their first lesson, she revealed that she’d been teaching the kids they found self-defense. She opened up about how their intel had said nothing about children.

Peter felt more at ease after Black Widow had confided in him by saying, “When I saw all those kids, I felt disgusted with myself more than anything. If you hadn’t gotten them out of there-“ she hadn’t said anything more but Peter got the message.

Now, he was beginning to wonder if the lessons were a thanks for saving the kids or a punishment for going against orders. Because they sure _felt_ like a punishment.

“How are the kids doing?” He asked.

“Better than you,” she shot back, taking note of the bruises on his arms. Even though he was wearing the mask, Natasha claimed that his suit was distracting her from his form and put him in normal work out clothes. While it wasn’t exactly the peak of fashion, Peter understood the need.

“I’ll be fine, these’ll heal in no time.” he brushed it off and tried to not think about how he hadn’t landed a single punch on the super-spy.

“Yeah, well have fun with that, I’m going to go crush Clint at Super Smash, see you next Friday?”

“As long as school break doesn’t get too out of hand,” Peter joked.

Natasha didn’t break a smile, “Bye, Spider-Man.”

Peter quickly changed out of the sweaty gym clothes and into his suit, he was bounding out the door, excited to get home, when he collided with a dark figure. It turned out to be Sam Wilson and another man who Peter didn’t quite recognize. Sam was relaxed wearingsweatpants and an Avenger’s shirt, but the other man was wearing an ornate tunic-thing over white pants. It looked African? Peter wasn’t entirely sure.

“Watch it, kid!’ Sam scolded (Peter was pretty sure the man was just feeling salty about his loss so long ago).

“So, so, sorry, I wasn’t even watching where I was going and-“ Peter looked at the other man, his eyebrow was raised as if amused by Peter’s ramblings and Peter was starting to feel embarrassed. He held out a hand for him to shake, “Hi, I’m Spider-Man.”

“T’Challa,” he said smoothly, giving Peter’s hand a firm grasp but nothing more (still not the most awkward handshake he’d ever had), Peter wished he could have such a calm demeanor but-

“Wait,” Peter pulled away his hand as if he’d been burned, “Do you mean, King of Wakanda, T’Challa?!” He was definitely freaking out now he stumbled back and ‘bowed,’ “Pleasure to meet you, your majestyness.” Well that had been a train wreck.

When he looked up Sam was wearing a shit eating grin if Peter had ever seen one, “Chill out, kid, I know you’re high strung but T’Challa’s cool.”

Peter stood up a bit straighter but nothing could’ve prepared him for the next question, “Will you come to Wakanda with me, young spider?”

“T’Challa, I know Spider-Man’s sort of cool, but why would we take him with us?” Sam asked, bewildered at the idea.

“Shuri’s birthday is tomorrow and I promised I’d get her something cool from America!” T’Challa insisted, trying to defend himself.

“Spider-Man isn’t something you can _give_ your sister, that’s not how presents work. Beside, he probably doesn’t even want to-“

Before Sam could continue he blurted out, “I can go! For a week at least, then I have training with Black Widow.” While they’d been talking, Peter had gotten an okay from his aunt to go to Wakanda. With their financial situation, vacation was rare and had few events in between.

T’Challa nodded, Sam looked horrified, and though no one could see his face, Peter was smiling.

 

T’Challa found Spider-Man very admirable. After the battle in Germany, Shuri could hardly stop talking about the hero and was clearly a bit obsessed. She’d been begging to come with T’Challa to his meeting with Tony Stark just in case she could meet Spider-Man, but now he was going to give her something better. T’Challa really was the best brother.

As they were nearing the barren expanse that disguised Wakanda, T’Challa called up Spider-Man to watch as they passed the mirage. “Are we almost there?” Spiderman asked, standing over T’Challa’s shoulder.

T’Challa felt a small grin appear on his face, “Actually, we’re already here,” and he dived into the ‘trees.’ Spider-Man let out a yelp which was quickly followed by a gasp of awe. T’Challa was feeling incredibly proud of his city right about then. Spider-Man shot off question after question about the mechanisms they used but T’Challa insisted he had to talk to Shuri about that.

So while, yes, T’Challa found Spider-Man admirable, he also felt an inescapable uneasiness. Sam told T’Challa that the young spider was no younger than college age (which Sam had heard from a spy), but something about Spider-Man felt young. Too young. Despite Sam’s reassurances, T’Challa worried about Spider-Man.

If the hero _was_ as young as T’Challa suspected, he was certainly putting a lot of pressure on himself. He couldn’t imagine letting Shuri do something like Spider-Man did.

“Mr. T’Challa?” Spider-Man asked, T’Challa prompted him with a hum, “I still don’t really understand why you brought me here.”

Right, Spider-Man had been sleeping most of the flight. “Well, I mentioned this earlier, but it is my sister’s birthday-“ T’Challa looked up at the digital clock built into the ship, _5_ _am_ , “Today. She’s turning seventeen and wanted something from America. I decided to bring you because, well she’ll kill me if she finds out I told you, but she definitely holds you in high regard. You just might be her favorite hero, after me of course.”

Spider-Man fidgeted a bit on the side, T’Challa pulled up the hull and guided the ship to a landing, “Well, I hope she’s not disappointed.”

“Don’t worry, she won’t be.”

 

T’Challa had been right, of course. He knew his sister very well. However, upon seeing Spider-Man, Shuri completely ignored her brother to bombard the other with questions. So much for being his sister’s favorite hero.

“Are you going to wear that all week?” Was the first question he heard her ask.

Spider-Man completely froze in place, T’Challa couldn’t tell if he was thinking or scared, “I don’t, know. I didn’t exactly bring any clothes with me so I might have to.”

Shuri shot T’Challa a glare, “And why is that? Was this trip not planned?”

Spider-Man curled in on himself just a little bit and shook his head, “Not really, your brother just sorta grabbed me and was like, “Wanna come to Wakanda?” and I was like, “Sure, why not,” because you don’t just turn down a free trip to the coolest place on Earth.”

Shuri grinned, “If you need me to, I can scrounge up some extra clothes, I am a princess after all. But now, you’re coming to the lab with me and you’re going to show me all of your tech,” Shuri demanded and T’Challa pitied whoever was wearing that suit of red and blue. They were in for wild ride.

 

Sam was so, so fucked. Everything had been going fine before the call, T’Challa had taken him to talk with Bucky. Sam had always felt weird about how he had never _really_ met the guy he’d fought for with Cap. They were able to talk about Germany and Steve; it was nice as Sam found that Bucky wasn’t that bad once you got past the angry facade and the awkward conversation ticks. Then of course, they had to be interrupted.

Sam hadn’t known he’d even got service in Wakanda before the call, so when he accepted the call to hear Tony’s yelling voice, he was dealing with twice the shock. He excused himself from Bucky’s hut and tried to get through to the engineer.

“What are you saying? I actually can’t understand you, start from the top,” He said calmly. Oftentimes, he had to deal with angry recruits or yelling commanders, but this was out of control.

He could _hear_ the deep breath Tony took in before, “Where is my kid?”

“Your what?”Sam was blown away, he hadn’t known Tony had any kind of offspring (other than the robots he’d made).

“My kid!” Tony shouted, “Y’know, short, covered head to toe in spandex, beat your ass down in Germany?”

“That’s your kid?”

“Get over it; now where is he? He isn’t answering at all. Put him on right now,” Tony ordered. Sam felt sheepish, as if it were his fault that T'Challa kidnapped Starks son.

"Okay, okay, but first I gotta find him. But we're pretty far away from the city."

"You're still near the city? Where?"

Shit, Stark didn't know yet? “We're in Wakanda."

Tony blew up. So Sam hung up with the goal to call the philanthropist back _after_ finding Spider-Man. He needed to get back as soon as possible. Bidding Bucky goodbye, Sam got on the motorcycle (Sam always did love a good motorcycle) T’Challa had lended him and made his way back.

 

Sam burst into Shuri’s lab with all the purpose of a dying man -meaning that he would most likely collapse if he couldn’t find Spider-Man. Tony was going to have his ass.

Making his way to the main area, all he could find was Shuri with an incredibly pale teen standing around a table supporting some strange contraption. This was not going well for him.

“Where’s Spider-Man? I swear I’ve looked everywhere in the palace,” Sam huffed.

Shuri looked at the other boy with a grin on her face, “Why don’t you tell him, Peter?”

‘Peter’ turned bright red and looked at Sam with a sheepish look, as if there was something he didn’t want to say. “Well, I’m Spider-Man,” he admitted.

“Don’t mess around kid, Stark’s going to-“ Sam paused and looked at the kid a bit closer. Despite being in ill fitting clothing, the kid seemed to be in shape. Sam didn’t want to admit that he’d been beaten by a little twerp but, “Prove it.”

Peter’s face went blank as if he had been caught in a lie, but slowly and carefully, he began to climb up the wall.

“Geeze kid I get it. Just, can you call your dad? He’s pissed.”

Peter almost looked offended, “My dad’s dead,” he said bluntly. Was this some kind of sick humor that millennials had now? Because Sam wasn’t finding it funny at all.

“It’s like you’re trying to drive me in insane,” Sam groaned, “Look Spider-kid, I’ll probably never ask anything of you again, but just call your dad.”

“Whoa, back off,” Shuri said, quick to defend Peter, and Sam was really done with teenagers, “Just because you and my dad are friends, doesn’t mean I can’t kick you out right now.”

The strangest thing was that Shuri seemed serious, he’d only met Shuri once before but already this seemed out of character for her. Sam was starting to worry that he’d gotten something terribly mixed up. “Stark _is_ your dad, right?”

Peter pursed his lips as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cry. And damn, had Spider-Man really been a kid this whole time? “No, like I said, my dad died a _looong_ time ago, and can we please stop talking about this?”

A feeling of dread came over Sam, he had messed up bad. But was it really his fault? Stark seemed pretty insistent that Spider-Man was _his_ _kid_. “I’m sorry, can you call Stark though, he’s pretty worried about you,” just like how a dad would be, he left unsaid.

Peter turned around to grab something and Shuri shooed Sam away. He deserved it though, he was officially the biggest asshat in the world.

 

T’Challa hadn’t exactly known what had gone on between Sam and Spider-Man, but Shuri had told him it had been pretty rough. At least for Spider-Man, but Shuri’s birthday party was tonight and it was taking place all over the city. T’Challa couldn’t help but feel that Spider-Man’s sadness was his fault, he had been the one that dragged the young hero here and he definitely should’ve asked Tony first. Somehow he had to cheer up the vigilante.

Yet, as he stood outside the guest room, it was Spider-Man who’d opened the door, he didn’t seem to surprised when he saw T’Challa, “Oh, hi Mr. Black Panther.”

“T’Challa, please.”

“I thought I was Spider-Man, are we switching roles?”

“Can we talk?” T’Challa pleaded.

Spider-Man looked down, then back at the king before pulling off his mask. It was pale and unmarked with age. Spider-Man couldn’t be more than fifteen, “Yeah, but call me Peter, it’s less syllables.”

“What happened?” It wasn’t much but it seemed to be the push that Peter needed. It was clear that the teen didn’t usually open up on his own, but T’Challa was right in suspecting that Peter needed to get something off of his chest.

Peter sat over on his neatly made bed before beginning, “It’s just Sam, he told me to call my dad because I guess he thought Mr. Stark was my dad and it just, was uncomfortable. My dad died when I was pretty young, but I got over it because I had Uncle Ben. He’d already been taking care of me a lot and in a way I felt closer to him than my actual dad, but now he’s gone too and, and I guess I just cant get over him.”

“My father died as well, but before him I had experienced death in the family. What I’ve learned is that you don’t just ‘get over it’ no matter how hard you try. Death lingers like a perfume you can’t wash off. Whether it’s the idea of who the person was or the longing for their presence, the fact is that death is permanent and so are the holes it makes. But there’s more to your woe, correct?”

Peter nodded, “It’s Mr. Stark I guess, the more I spend time with him, the more I’m starting to see him as a- as a dad and I feel terrible about it.”

“Why should you feel terrible about your happiness?” Peter said nothing so T’Challa continued, “From what I heard from Sam’s end, Tony was pretty worried when he thought you’d gone missing from his tower so don’t think you’re alone. I believe that Tony cares for you very much, like a father would for his son. Just as those we lose take a part of us, with every relationship we make, we gain more knowledge and more love. You should treasure those relationships you make even more, knowing that you are becoming so much more in the process.”

“You really think Tony cares for me like that?” Peter looked up at T’Challa with gleaming eyes and T’Challa couldn’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t care for the young teen.

“Of course. Now, how would Spider-Man like to go to a party?” T’Challa nudged the teen with his elbow.

“I think he’d like that very much. Thanks T’Challa.”

 

The party and the whole rest of the week had been seemingly never ending fun yet still so short. Especially since Peter wanted to make it to his training on time (and Tony had said that if he was late he would be flying down to Wakanda himself and would ‘rekidnap’ Peter). Peter decided he wanted to spend his last hour in Wakanda just enjoying the view. The whole week had been a whirlwind of activity even though he mostly stayed inside of Shuri’s lab -he’d learned so much! So he donned his suit and set out to find the best building for city watching.

Lots of the buildings in Wakanda had garden rooftops so it wasn’t a challenge to find a good place to sit, but he wanted to find the best place to sit. When he finally did (on a beautiful building draped with a plant he’d never seen before, the garden on top was ironically covered with pink flamingos -Peter was pretty sure they were somehow watering the garden or helping the Earth as well because the Wakandans didn’t do anything for no reason).

He thought over the week, how he was able to meet Bucky and tons of other people. But if he had one regret, it would be that he’d avoided Sam, or let Sam avoid him all week. He wanted to explain himself, but he also wanted to hear what Sam had to say. It felt bitter to have to leave with such tension still remaining, especially since Sam would be staying for who knew how long. It took only a quarter of an hour for the Falcon to join him on the roof.

“Hey Spider-Man,” he said casually, as if they hadn’t been avoiding each other all week.

“Hi Sam.”

“Why did you take off your mask here? Why not tell the other Avengers?” Sam asked bluntly.

Peter thought about it, it wasn’t like he was trying to hide from the Avengers, or that he liked the Wakandans better it was just that, “I felt at ease here. I guess I just wasn’t as scared to, I dunno, be myself? I feel more threatened in general in New York. There are villains everywhere and any slip could put my family in danger. Wakanda is just safer, no one is going to hunt down my best friend if they get a glimpse of my face.” Peter cringed at how it came out but settled with it being the truth.

“Hmm, I think I understand.” Peter doubted that, “Is it like, everywhere else, you feel cut off from yourself?”

In shock, Peter nodded his head yes.

“When I first joined the forces, I had the same feeling. It was like having two different personalities. When I was with the other officers, I had to put on a hard exterior and not be bothered by anything. But then I came home and I felt like I had to leave all of that behind when in reality, I had become a different person. So when I met the Avengers, they became my ‘Wakanda,’ where I could finally put aside the differences and find out where I truly stood with myself.”

“Oh, yeah that’s about right.”

“Can I ask you for some advice?” Sam asked politely.

Peter was confused, after Sam had so eloquently put all of his feelings, Peter felt like he should be the one asking the questions. So he just nodded, yet again at a loss for words.

“I messed up. There’s this kid, Peter, and I made some assumptions and I think I upset him.” Under his mask, Peter felt heat rise to his cheeks, he couldn’t tell if he was touched, embarrassed, or _mortified_. “How can I apologize to him? He’s a pretty smart kid, and he’s sickingly nice- from what I’ve heard- but I have no idea how to approach him.”

Peter thought about what his hero was saying. There wasn’t anything he wanted but if the Falcon was asking, “I guess, if I’d made this ‘Peter’ upset,” Peter snickered, “I would try to explain myself, and maybe give him a hug?”

“Hmm, good plan. I think I’ll do it.”

Peter sat still, waiting. Was Sam not going to do it now?

“What? Do you want a hug too? I’m sorry but this hug is reserved for _Peter_.”

Peter laughed, “Aw dang, I was really hoping to get in on that hug action, Falcon.”

“Well, I guess some practice wouldn’t hurt.” Sam offered.

And so Spider-Man got his hug, and Sam gave his explanation, and if they all cried a little bit when Peter left on the plane, no one said anything about it. All they said was that Peter better keep in touch or they weren’t sure how long T’Challa would be able to pretend he wasn’t going to miss the kid.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Geeze, I tried to upload this like ten million times already. AO3 refuses to let me use italics and live. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It got a bit deep with T’Challa but that’s just how it be sometimes. I really like writing this fic, its nice to pretend I have no responsibilities. ;p  
> NEXT UP: Thor and Bruce, its going to be lit. I’m even going to rewatch Ragnarok for it.  
> Jesi~


	4. Thor and Bruce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce has been captured, Thor needs Peter’s help to get him back.

 

School had been going really well for Peter. After his trip to Wakanda and his talk with Sam, he was beginning to feel more confident in himself. While this new confidence level wasn’t quiteaffecting his grades, it had become easier for him to talk with others (excluding Flash). His lessons with Natasha had been going better too; he wasn’t ready to reveal himself yet, but he felt like he could level with her more. He wasn’t scared of her anymore.

A side shove from Flash brought Peter to the present, “Watch it, nerd,” he spat.

Peter turned to glare at his classmate but didn’t say anything. He just wanted to get to the tower. Walking away briskly, Peter dodged into a bathroom with a stall window. He burst into the stall at the end and shucked off his clothes so he could change into his Spider-Man suit.

The bathroom door opened with a slam and Peter hurried up putting on his suit. “Peter, I know you’re in here!” Flash yelled, Peter stumbled on the leg of the suit, “Come on, I just want to talk,” Flash fake pleaded.

Peter activated the suit, pulled on his mask, and swung his backpack over his shoulder. One shove up and the window was open and Spider-Man was free. One web at a nearby building and Peter was careening through the streets. With no real direction in mind yet -as lessons didn’t start for another hour- Peter was just looking for a way to kill time.

Alas, as it was broad daylight, there wasn’t much happening.

With nothing to do, Peter felt his spirits fall. Only for them to raise again, in a sort of twisted way, when he heard a scream from three blocks down. Swiftly, he made his way down. Looking into every alley for a sign of danger. Then he heard more screams and a low sort of chuckle, it had to be a villain. At least that’s what Peter thought.

When he turned a corner, he saw the last thing he expected. Thor surrounded by a gaggle of squealing girls. Each one was ready to take a selfie with him and Peter secretly wished he could too.

He didn’t think Thor would know who he was, so he was pleasantly surprised when Thor called his name, “Spider-Man!” All of the girls’ heads turned and they readied their phones as if loading ammunition into a gun.

“Hey Thor, were you looking for the tower?”

“No! In fact, I was looking for another hero, how lucky I was to find one as glorious as you! Bruce has shown me many videos!” Thor practically yelled.

Peter was stuck between blushing and finding the words to express his confusion, “Why do you need another-“

“You’re right, we should go now!” Thor pried himself away from the girls and they were wise not to follow. If only Spider-Man had a piece of that wisdom. Thor placed a hand on Peter’s bicep and raised his umbrella.

“Um, what do you mean g-“ Peter’s words were drowned out by a sweeping wave of light, rainbow light.

When Peter opened his eyes again, he was pretty sure he wasn’t in New York anymore. They were surrounded by florescent green grass and a field of seemingly sentient flowers. Peter tried to ignore how one of the flowers seemed to be looking at him. He’d never felt so awkward -scratch that, meeting Liz’s dad would always be at the top of the list- and vulnerable. Stuck in his red suit, he wished he hadn’t left his backpack behind. It felt wrong to be wearing a mask here, like he was breaking some sacred tradition.

“Damn the bifrost, we’re a bit farther from the city than I had been aiming for,” Peter looked at Thor, who was looking into the distance; he was seeing something Peter could not.

He looked around and, “Is it just me or are the flowers getting closer?” his Spidey-sense was ringing lightly in the back of his mind.

Thor whipped his head down, to see the eerie flowers were indeed closer and beginning to glow.

“Man of Spiders!” He said urgently, “You must take off your disguise!”

Peter’s cheeks glowed red, “Like, all of it?” Because sure, Thor was his hero, and it wasn’t like he was ashamed of his body, but he felt so much smaller compared to the god.

“Just the mask, young hero.”

So Peter did as he was told.

 

Thor had become accustomed to seeing young warriors from Earth, but there was something separating Bruce Banner’s young (only 48!) and the young of this new hero. Banner held wisdom but maintained a certain sense of cynicism, this Spider-Man seemed to be all trust and youthful innocence. While Thor knew the Spider-Man had faced his own set of battles, he couldn’t see it on the young man’s face.

“You are just a child,” Thor breathed, paying no attention to the flowers that were slowly retreating.

He didn’t expect Spider-Man’s affronted look at the comment nor the red that quickly rose up to his pale face, “Don’t call me that,” he said, a bit angrily (though it was nothing compared to Bruce’s anger).

“Is it not true?” Thor asked bluntly, perhaps the young man had some anti-aging device. One could never be sure, Earth was a terribly odd place and Thor wasn’t looking to make assumptions. Spider-Man looked to the side, as if embarrassed and nodded, “Do not be ashamed, on Asgard, warriors begin their training once they turn four,” Thor chuckled at the memories, “I can remember it like it was yesterday, hard to think it’s already been a millennium or two.”

Thor must have said the right thing, for the hero let off a small smile -albeit he paled a bit when Thor mentioned his own age (Midgardians were so funny). A small bit of laugher came from the hero, “Yeah, wow, that’s- intense, umm, I still haven’t asked but why are we here? And, where is here?”

“We are on Volara, quite a distance from your Earth. I need your help rescuing the second strongest Avenger,” Thor said. It should be clear who Thor was talking about.

However, the answer didn’t come as easily, the other hesitated before meekly asking, “Captain America?” At Thor’s disgruntled face, he must’ve realized he’d said the wrong thing, “Well whenever Tony and I made lists, it was always Hulk first, and then Cap-“

“I’ll have you know that I defeated the Hulk in fair battle. So that must make me the strongest Avenger, correct?”

“I guess you never really came up, I guess you could be- wait, who are we here for?”

“The Hulk!” Thor squawked.

“Got it,” Spider-Man nodded off at Thor with a hand at his forehead. Was this what Captain America had done? A salute?

“So, Man of Spiders,” Thor looked over at his companion, “are we ready to find him?”

“Wait, I feel like I missed something, you said we’re on ‘Valeria?’ Another planet?” The hero’s voice quickly rose in panic, “Oh my god I’m so dead, this is so awesome but Aunt May is going to kill me, I mean I can’t just turn this down, but- holy shit we’re on another planet. It doesn’t feel like another plan-“

Thor put his hands on the younger boy’s shoulders, he was pretty sure the other was just talking to himself, “Sun is getting real low, it’s going down and it’s dimming and-“

The red clad hero looked at him in confusion, “Um, what are you doing?” He started to pull away and Thor let him.

“You are very similar to the Bruce Banner, I thought my words might calm you down Man of Spiders,” Thor said in a low voice.

“Yeah, no, I’m fine, just my first time on another planet,” and Thor didn’t know human voices could go that high, “Just, maybe can I get some different clothes? And can you call me Peter?”

“Of course young Peter, now let us head to the city.”

 

Peter’s attention was everywhere. There were so many stimuli surrounding him that it was hard to focus on any one aspect. How could he look at the now green sky when the street vendors were trying to sell moving fruit? Or what about the brightly colored silks everyone seemed to be wearing? The outer city was a bustle of culture and life. People were yelling over Peter and the rest of the crowd, there were samples, and Peter either saw someone get executed or proposed to. He wasn’t quite sure.

While there was a strong culture here, everyone other person was different than the next. Peter couldn’t help but think that _this_ much diversity would make it hard to find clothes that would fit his specific number of appendages. So he decided to stick to his costume. Now that they were out of the field and in the city, he felt less and less out of place. Maybe there was something about the field that had affected him.

“Hey Thor?”

“Yes, Peter?”

“What exactly _is_ this place? And how did the Hulk end up here?” Peter asked, he also wanted to know why Thor was feeling so casual about his best friend being captured but didn’t comment on it.

“Good question, I do not know much about the history of Volara but I can lay out some basics. The field where we ended up was the Field of Truth, if you do not present yourself accurately, it is said they will strip you to your barest bones, quite literally. Which is why you had to take off your mask. That place is rumored to be full of ancient magics and there are many myths regarding the flowers, I can tell you them another time. Because of the more villainous side of the Field, Volara by itself does not attract many people. I guess the potentiality of death right nearby seems to scare off some people,” Thor paused, as if wondering why others would be so scared of have the skin stripped from their bones.

“But Volara persevered and became a massive trading hub. Which is why Bruce and I came, we wanted to gather some materials for New Asgard: in what you call Norway. We needed some Wrye Ore and we heard of a potential ally that wanted to meet up. But it was a trap! They just wanted the Hulk which they somehow discovered was Bruce. That’s all though.”

Peter stayed silent, that had been a lot of information and he wasn’t processing it very well (he still had yet to process that he was really on a different planet). Looking up at the sky, he noted that the green had quickly changed to a deep turquoise.

“Do you have a plan for how to find him?” Peter asked, awaiting the god’s wisdom. However, Thor stayed silent. “Okay then, how about we go over what happened and make one right now? That sound good?” Thor simply nodded.

“I knew I was right to bring you, Spider-Man.”

 

Thor was actually a lot smarter than he seemed -and than the Avengers tended to give him credit for. With Thor’s help, Peter had been able to program an alien ship and have it act as a distraction for the building they were breaking into (just a simple skim on the side of the building would be enough for people to leave and them to sneak in). The people who had kidnapped Bruce seemed to be a fabric company that publicly doubled as a slave trade. It was disgusting.

They did a search of every floor they could get to but didn’t seem to find anything. Peter turned to Thor, “Guess we have to go to Plan B.”

Thor nodded solemnly, “This is always my favorite plan, but I’ve never done your version.”

“I just hope it’ll work,” Peter said nervously.

“It will, young spiderling,” Thor promised and placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder before hefting up his lithe body into a princess style carry, “GET HELP!” Thor cried.

Peter fought the urge to laugh as Thor continued to run throughout the building and did his best to play dead. It wasn’t until Thor reached the sub level did someone answer his call.

“Oh shoot, is that Ran?” cried out a bug-like alien with bulging, refracting eyes.

Thor paused, “This is not ‘Ran.’”

“Frer twer**, you don’t have to get all defensive about it, all you humanoids look alike to me; it’s hard to believe there’s planets of you out there, must be pretty boring when everyone looks the same.”

“Can you help him?” Thor cried out in mock worry.

“Perhaps, though I might put an organ in the wrong place, I haven’t studied up on my alien anatomy lately. We have some tools with the Hulk,” he paused, “Oh, maybe he knows how to fix you! Once a humanoid always a humanoid, eh?”

“Genius plan, sir!”

Peter could hardly believe how easily the plan was going. At this rate, they would be back home in no time. Maybe Natasha had waited up for him. Nah, probably not. How long had it even been? Thor’s arms wrapped tighter around him to keep him from being jostled in the run to the Hulk. Then they came to a sudden stop and if not for Thor’s grip, Peter would have gone flying.

From the still yet anxious atmosphere, Peter figured they were in an elevator of some kind. It looked more like an egg than a box, and had a long spike in the middle of the floor, but they were definitely going downwards.

“So, how long have you worked here?” the bug-guy asked Thor, attempting to make small talk.

“Long enough,” Thor said curtly.The farther they went down, the less controlled Thor seemed to be. As if the idea of finding Bruce was super charging his emotions. How the god had been so chill before, Peter had no idea.

There was a distinct warble that came from the top of the egg and a door opened to let loose the smell of alien chemicals. They were in a lab. All Peter wanted to do was get up and look around, but he couldn’t let Thor down. If he just waited a bit longer...

“Bruce!” Thor cried out, and ran over to some point in the distance that Peter couldn’t see. People tried to stop him, but after jumping out of Thor’s arms, Peter made quick work of them with his webs and continued on after the god.

Thor was running much farther than him in the distance when someone threw a bomb at him. Peter dodged it but he was surrounded by a sea of smoke stinging his eyes and invading his mouth. He coughed out before pulling out and putting on his mask. As his eyes adjusted to the lenses and Karen came on line, he tried to make his way out of the smoke.

“Keep heading straight, Thor and Bruce’s heat signatures are fifty feet away,” Karen informed him.

“Thanks Karen, this stuff isn’t poisonous, right?” Peter asked, not incredibly concerned.

“Not at all,” Karen paused, “Peter, are you aware that you have been in the suit for ten hours?”

“Shoot, really? It hasn’t felt like its been that long,” Peter punched a guy coming in on his left, “Is that bad?”

“Not necessarily, though when I tried to reach Tony -as per protocol- my message did not go through,” Karen said.

“Ohhh, that’s probably because we’re not on Earth,” Peter’s feet pounded on the ground, “It’s fine, but maybe don’t tell him when we get back? It’s just because I don’t have any other clothes.”

“I must tell him, it’s protocol.”

“Okay,” Peter said, dejectedly. Finally having reached Thor, who had left his own strew of bodies in his wake, he saw Bruce Banner was unconscious, “Is he okay?”

Thor turned and smiled, “Bruce Banner is always okay, you know he is the Hulk, correct?” Peter nodded, “Well, this sleeping agent is sure to wear off very quickly.”

“Okay, um grab him and let’s go, the ship should be back in, “Peter’s eyes flicked to the clock in his mask, “now.”

There was a large crash from above and Thor did what Peter said, “Okay, we shall continue with the plan.” Peter turned and in front of him saw he was faced with what appeared to be a fire squad, but what he assumed were guns looked more like giant, deformed marshmallows, “But first, let me just,” Thor pulled out his umbrella -from where, Peter had no idea- and it turned into an axe. Thor’s lips turned into a wry grin, “This’ll be a piece of cake.” He threw his charged axe into the center of the crowd and lightning shot out and hit all of the surrounding fighters.

“Whoa, that’s pretty useful, huh.”

“Let us get into the ship young warrior,” and Peter smiled, because Thor had trusted him throughout this entire process despite his age. And they ran.

 

Bruce was very impressed with Spider-Man. Thor’s plans always left a lot to be desired, but Spider-Man had been able to take one of Thor’s most used plans and actually make it work. After they all loaded the spaceship with the Ore the Asgardians needed, in which Spider-Man carried as much as Thor had, both of them sat in the hull while Thor took the wheel.

“Thank you,” Bruce blurted out.

Spider-Man looked over, and his lenses blinked, “For what?”

“Y’know, helping out Thor. Not everyone is used to Thor’s spontaneity, but you dealt with it really well,” Bruce clarified.

“Of course I helped, I like to consider myself an honorary Avenger, even if I _did_ turn down a spot. But y’know, I think my favorite part was that I got to meet you, you’re the-“

“Hulk?” Bruce guessed, internally cringing. A lot of the times, people forgot about his _seven_ PhDs and just remembered how he could take down a building if he got angry enough.

“The hulk? No, I mean, your papers are _epic_!” Peter exclaimed, “My science teacher gave them to me last year just because, and I swear I highlighted like, every word. Aunt May got soooo mad at me for bringing them to the dinner table.”

Bruce continued to be impressed, “Yeah? So are you, a college student?” The scientist asked.

Spider-Man covered his mask where his mouth probably was, “Oh I didn’t mean to let that slip,” he looked up at Bruce, “I mean, I’m old enough,” he said defensively and Bruce’s heart sank. Spider-Man was just a kid. Bruce may not always be caught up with the daily news about celebrities, but even he’d seen the videos of Spider-Man online. He was constantly fighting and protecting the streets from villains to street muggings.

If the vigilante really was that young, Bruce could understand why he was so defensive. He was worried, that if people knew how old he was they wouldn’t trust him as much even if he did an amazing job. “I believe you.” Spider-Man’s lenses widened, as if shocked, “I’ve seen you in action, and no matter how old you are, I trust that you can act responsibly outside of the suit since you do such a stellar job in it,” Bruce added, commending the young hero.

“Thanks Dr. Banner, that really means a lot coming from you.”

“So, I hear you like science, want to help me examine the suppressant the aliens gave me?” Bruce asked.

“Oh my god, is this even real? Yes I want to help you!!” Spider-Man exclaimed

From the front came Thor’s booming voice, “We’ll be at the Earth wormhole in an hour.”

Peter let out a whoop, “That’ll be more than enough time!”

 

EXTRA (because I took a while to upload):

“Are you sure you want to do this Thor? I don’t think you’ll make it out alive,” Peter asked, worried. He was holding his damp backpack -villains who? the rain was Peter’s worst enemy- clutched in a tight fist. They were standing in front of what seemed to be tallest building ever (it wasn’t by far, but it felt like it right then).

Thor just laughed off Peter’s worry, “I will be fine Man of Spiders, I have felt with many angry women in my day. I can handle it,” he said in a lighthearted tone.

“Okay then, it’s your death,” Peter said, shrugging. Secretly he was relieved that he wouldn’t be totally blamed for completely disappearing from earth for twenty four hours. Thor just kept laughing and so they began the climb to their doom, totally and completely willingly.

After letting himself in with the key he had in his backpack, he was quickly tackled by an overjoyed yet _seething_ Aunt, “Oh Peter, where were you?” She pulled away to look him in the eye, “I was so worried when you didn’t come home on time and when I called Tony he said you hadn’t come in for your training, but then he said you weren’t even on Earth, I think you need to explain yourself young man, you can’t just disappear without saying anything!” Aunt May scolded him, barely letting Peter get in a word.

“I’m sorry Aunt May, but I’m okay! Um, I was sort of thinking Thor could explain,” Peter gestured over to the looming god, had she really not seen him?

“So it’s _your_ fault!” she stepped away from Peter and stuck an accusing finger on the god’s chest.

“Yes, I must apologize, but may I say he was a great hel-“

“Apologize?” Aunt May gasped, “I think you owe me more than an apology, I almost had a heart attack I was so scared,” she claimed and Peter was mortified.

Thor looked frozen, probably thinking that he had actually almost killed Aunt May, “I’ll do anything to repay you for my grievances,” he asserted.

“Well, you can start with joining us for dinner, but no more taking my nephew off planet!” She scolded.

“Of course.”

Peter pulled Thor off to the side, “That may seem like a reward, but I promise you it’s a punishment,” he said, solemn and serious.

Thor simply waved him off -he needed to start heeding Peter’s advice- “I’m sure your Aunt’s cooking is wonderful.”

Peter just looked up at the god, “Whatever, it’s your stomach,” he paused, “Hey, will you take a selfie with me?”

“It’s your face!” Thor said back. Not quite understanding the saying. Peter just laughed and pulled out his phone.

 

**frer twer, when I was going over this, I had initially written _geeze dude_ but those are very,,, human words so I was like, I’ll just make something up and here we are. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I do ship ThorBruce, thanks for asking. This took me a long time because I had the ACT today and had to study ALLLLLLL week. THen when I was done, I just wanted to collapse and it was soooo hot. Ugh. Feel free to leave a comment, I’ll be gone for a week (IN THE DESERT OOF) but I’ll respond to them when (or if) I get back.  
> Jesi~


	5. Steve Rogers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter is alone in the penthouse when Steve calls upon him to defend Queens.

Peter was waiting anxiously in Tony’s penthouse. After Thor took him to space and he disappeared for a day, Tony got pretty mad. Peter only hoped he could make it right. He just had to explain.

However, Mr. Stark was currently in Japan working out a deal going off of his contract with T’Challa. He said he’d be back soon, so Peter was just hanging out there in the meantime. It was weird being in the penthouse without Mr. Stark there and Peter was feeling uncomfortable. If the call to Japan hadn’t been so last minute, Tony would’ve given Peter a ride home but he took Happy -to drive him in Japan- and now the teen was stuck.

And boy, if he ever told Ned that he had been in Tony Stark’s living area by _himself,_ andalone, his friend would flip! But really, it wasn’t very exciting, all of the screens Peter always saw Tony using could only be accessed from hidden places or by random hand gestures which Peter couldn’t quite remember. So instead, he pulled a random book from off of the coffee table ( _The Doors of Perception_ ) and sat down to read.

The book itself was incredibly philosophical and a bit hard to follow; it didn’t seem like something Mr. Stark would read. Because of the boring subject, Peter felt a slight twinge of delight when FRIDAY interrupted his reading.

“Mr. Parker, a transmission is currently coming into the tower, would you like to receive it?” the AI asked politely.

“Oh, yeah, of course!” Peter practically threw the book to the side.

What came through was a scratchy voice stemming from bad transmission, it sounded familiar but Peter couldn’t quite place it, “Stark, are you receiving? We need you in the field now!” the voice ordered as if he’d done it a million times before, and the teen had a sinking suspicion he knew who was on the other end.

Seeing no other option, Peter responded by speaking aloud, “Mr. Stark isn’t- he’s in Japan,” Peter bit his tongue, hating how his voice wavered with uncertainty, “Is there anything I can help with?” He knew he wouldn’t be able to replace _Iron Man_ , but he’d faced some pretty weird stuff since becoming Spider-Man. (However, Mr. Stark’s love for Cup n’ Noodles was probably the weirdest though.)

The voice swore, just a small, ‘damn’ but Peter felt momentarily shocked because if this was who he though it was- “Unless you’re a superhero than no,” he said curtly. Despite being Spider-Man whenever it was called for, Peter felt a twinge of disappointment at the curt rejection. There was a heave of breath and Peter suspected a fight was going on.

He quickly chimed back, “Actually I’m Spider-Man, we met in Germany and I’m from-“

“Queens!” the voice called, almost seeming a bit happy, “Well I’m Captain America -I think you already knew that- and I could really use your help down here.” Peter’s heart swelled with pride at the thought of Captain America -everyone’s childhood hero, the one his mom would always read him stories about- asking for his help. After he stole the older man’s shield, he’d been worried he’d fallen out of his good graces forever. Now, it was like Germany had never happened.

“Got it, I’ll get changed,” Peter said, making a break for his room where his suit was tucked away, “Where are you?”

“Your territory,” Captain America answer curtly, “Natasha and Clint are already here but I can’t get a hold on anyone else. Come as fast as possible.”

Peter nodded even if the hero couldn’t see him, “I’ll be there ASAP.” Peter pulled on his mask and opened the window -the cold air brushed over him as he assessed where to jump to next.

Captain America’s voice came through the speakers in the wall one last time, a confused, “ASAP? What does that mean?” but Peter was already on his way.

He needed to save his city.

 

Steve and Natasha were back to back, walking in a circle staring at the many surrounding enemies, “Have you heard anything from Wanda?” He asked. They were surrounded by incredibly strong robotic spiders; despite their strength, they were easy enough to break with a strong enough hit of blunt force, but were just as quickly able to reform. He wasn’t sure what Wanda’s powers might be able to do, but they needed all the help they could get.

“No,” Natasha looked down, “She and Vision have been off the grid for ages. What about Tony? Did you get through to him?”

“I could only reach Spider-Man, does he spend a lot of time at the tower?” Steve wondered aloud, a spider jumped at him and he found himself punching it with a shield.

Natasha smashed one of the robots with her dagger and it shattered, “Maybe.” But Steve felt she knew more than that, she knew everything about everyone. The vague answer made him think that there was something she wasn’t telling her. Of course, Natasha could be telling the truth, but after Germany, Steve found himself assuming the worst of his teammates. He needed to get over that fast.

Clint came over, shooting arrows all the while, “You invited the kid?” he asked urgently.

As he sent his shield down on a spider, Steve looked up sharply, “Kid? How old is Spider-Man anyway?” Worry began to course through his veins and he split off from Natasha to make an attack on the uncountable number of gray metallic legs and bodies.

The archer just shrugged, “College age?” he offered, and since when was Clint unsure about anything? Did the team’s best -and only- spies really know nothing about the young hero? He couldn’t possibly be _that_ good at keeping a secret identity, not that Steve knew how hard (or easy) it could be.

The captain felt conflicted. Sure, he’d been much younger when he got the injection and fought in the war, but things were different now. The kids weren’t as serious, they didn’t always understand true cost. Spider-Man had done an excellent job in Germany, even disarming Steve, but that didn’t mean he was equipped to deal with hard decisions.

Steve needed to work on his trust issues, it wasn’t so long ago (just less than a hundred years) that he’d been willing to trust anyone that offered him a kind word and a shoulder to lean on; now, he couldn’t find himself to trust Tony, the son of the man who made him who he was today (physically).

Tripping on his thoughts, Steve tumbled to the ground and found himself face to face with the horde of spiders that were now crawling all over his body. Steve was not entirely happy with this development. They were pinning him down so that he couldn’t even sit up. Natasha’s call for him was just a distant voice as they began to block out sound. Then, one of the spider’sdisappeared and Steve’s vision was cleared. The spiders were consecutively being taken off of his limp body and his muscles felt relief from not having to support the enormous weight of the numerous robots. When he was finally free, he jumped to his feet in one fluid motion and scanned the area for the force that had freed him.

On the side of one of buildings was Spider-Man, he seemed to have maybe twenty robotic spiders wrapped up in a sticky white substance which Steve could only imagine was the hero’s version of spider web. Was that coming from the hero? Steve hoped it was some technological advancement that Tony had created and not otherwise.

“Spiders? You guys should’ve invited me earlier! I would’ve hated to miss out on the party!" The red clad hero shouted over the battle field. He was wrapping the spiders up more and more so they couldn’t cut their way out.

“Hey Spi- glad you could make it!” Clint called out. The vigilante in question jumped down and cocked his head in confusion.

“Is that like, a nickname? Because if anyone should be called Spi, it’s you and Nat!” The kid joked. No one laughed. "Y'know, because you're spies?"

"We all got it, kid, but it wasn't funny."

Disregarding the harsh comment from Clint, Spider-Man jumped right into battle and Steve instantly felt the support coming from the new hero. Before, their hits made no difference as the cubic spiders were able to instantly reform themselves, but Spider-Man was able to disable the spiders with his encompassing spider webs. Slowly but surely, the team was lowing the number of spiders on the field.

“Geeze, it's almost like that really old movie, _Birds_. Except with spiders and we can actually fight back,” Spider-Man remarked, snickering at the end.

Steve wasn’t enjoying his sense of humor, but maybe he’d add that movie to his list.

When there were about forty spiders left, they began to run. They were all going to a central point and climbing on-

“I think all the tiny spiders are coming together to make one giant spider!” Steve didn’t even to look to see who’d said it, he knew.

“No shit, kid,” Clint retorted.

Spider-Man muttered something about not being a kid and Steve couldn’t find it in him to comment on Clint’s use of language in front of the younger hero for fear of offending Spider-Man.

What they thought would be a giant spider ended up just being a giant blob which was slowly encroaching on a nearby building. The team watched in confusion, unsure of the robot’s goal, which is when the robot started to absorb the building. Well, absorb wouldn’t be the right word. It more seemed to be eating the building. It took the materials and seemed to be converting them into more blocks to be controlled. Steve almost couldn’t believe it. How were they supposed to fight this?

Behind him came a small voice, “We can’t fight this,” Spider-Man whispered.

Steve turned around and shot the young hero a harsh gaze, “Yes, we can.” He said with determination. He didn’t quite believe it himself, but it was up to him to educate Spider-Man on perseverance.

 

Peter stared at Captain America, he thought that his heroes would be smarter than this. When the spiders came together, their signals seemed to be magnified and Karen had sent him a location. He could track where the spiders had come from.

Peter took a deep breath and stared the hero he had worshipped for so long in the eyes, “I have a better way,” at least, he hoped he did. He had no way of knowing if the signal was right. Whoever had built these spiders would surely know how to hide their signal, right? Steve looked at him and Peter wasn’t sure the older hero was going to trust him in that moment.

However, Captain America just let out a sigh. “Okay,” Peter’s eyes widened, “You think you can find the source of these spiders and shut them down?” Peter gave a nod, shaking his red clad head up and down.

The Captain looked over his shoulder to the two spies, “Nat, Clint, get civilians out of the way, Spider-Man is going to take me to the controller!” Peter marveled at how easily he was able to take charge. Peter had always been meek in real life, and even as Spider-Man he always had a hard time giving out orders.

“Let’s go!” Captain America shouted and Peter began to swing to their destination. He watched as Captain America ran impossibly fast on the road below him. He was still slower than Peter’s flying/falling mode so Peter didn’t go as fast. That is, until Captain America noticed, “Don’t wait for me, I’ll catch up!” And Peter went full speed.

The location was just five blocks up but when Peter got there, all he could find was an empty lot. And there weren’t many of those left in Queens. He eased himself off the side of the building onto the ground and looked around. There wasn’t even a grate he could lift up or a trap door (that he could see), unless-

Peter looked at the street behind him. There it was: a storm drain leading down to imperceptible darkness. Peter would have to go down it and man, did he regret watching It. Instead of shimmying down the drain, Peter went about ripping it off the sidewalk, it was just easier for him and would ensure Captain America would find where they were. As he crawled his way down the pipe that he discovered under the sidewalk, all Peter could think about was how much he hated this.

But also, how it didn’t seem right at all, he didn’t think these drainage slits were supposed to have pipes underneath them. The walls of the pipe he was on were dry and slick and there were two cables down the center which led to the sides of the pipe in a t. It almost seemed like a-

_**Ding**_. An elevator shaft. This _must_ be an underground lair. Well, there’s always a first time for everything, no matter how cliche it is, Peter thought to himself. He ended up jumping to the bottom and sure enough found himself on the top of a cylinder shaped elevator. He punched through it and shimmied his way in and out. On the other side was a wall of computers. The were all lit up and lined with code but for one which displayed live footage. In front of it all was a chair.

Peter decided to confront whoever was in it. “Hey! You need to stop what you’re doing!” Peter shouted.

The man in the chair turned around ominously -could he get any more cliche?- and looked at Peter up and down. “Ah, Spider-Man, I hope you enjoyed fighting my brother’s creations.”

At the mention of another possible villain, Peter’s whole body tensed up and he took a fighting stance, “Your brother?” He looked around when the man nodded, “So the spiders, they aren’t yours? Could you maybe, turn them off?”

The man simply laughed, “Why would I do that? Also, I don’t know how,” he shrugged and Peter was starting to get angry with the man’s frivolousness. Why didn’t he care about the lives of others? Sensing Peter’s anger, the man grinned, “It’s so much fun to watch the people run around, meanwhile the Avengers are doing nothing, so much for being the protectors of New York City.”

“They’re busy, plus, they wouldn’t even need to lift a finger to take you down,” Peter threatened, unsure of the truth.

“And that’s why they sent you!”

The hero looked around the room. In a quick motion he launched at the other man, pinning him to the chair with his webs. He pushed him out of the way and got to work, surely he would be able to turn it off.

However, right when he finally made sense of the code, his Spidey sense went off. Footsteps made their way into the room and Peter knew he had to jump away from the computers. He complied with his instincts just in time to see the computers all blow up.

A slow clap sounded from a dark corner on his left, with a sharp turn, he found who assumed was the brother of the main villain. “Well done Spider-Man, people are always saying you have fast reflexes but that seemed closer to seeing the future,” the man joked.

Peter just stared at him, how was he going to stop the spiders now? “Why would you blow that up? Now you can’t control them!”

Laughter resonated from deep within the man’s chest, “But can’t I? I am their creator after all. I’m guessing, however, that you are here to stop them?” The man tilted his head in a joking matter as if trying to make Peter angry (it was working), “How about we get a better view for that.” He pulled out a comically large box with two arrows on it, one up and one down. With a press of the upper button, the entire floor began to shake.

“What are you doing?” Peter asked. Was the building about to blow up? The man just laughed and Peter understood why when he saw the sky. It seemed they were on a platform that was being lifted higher and higher as they went.

Even if he didn’t have super-sight he would’ve been able to see the damage that the spiders were causing. A whole skyscraper had fallen over and was leaning on the one next to it. It seemed almost impossible that the spiders had eaten all the way through the building, he could hardly imagine how big they were now. Down below he could see the red-blue blur of Captain America’s suit, frantically looking for a way to get up to the platform.

“Just tell me now, do you have a device to control the spiders with?”

A grim look appeared on the man’s face, “Now why would I tell you that?”

“So maybe when Captain America comes up here, he kills you a little less than he usually would?” Peter guessed sarcastically. The man didn’t answer so Peter looked around the platform for anything he might be able to use to turn off the spiders. He would have to work fast.

 

Steve’s hands were incredibly sore. The platform above, that Spider-Man was on, seemed incredibly high and was being lifted by just a thin metal rod. A metal rod which he was currently climbing. Once he got to the top he saw Spider-Man frantically gathering random machinery from around the area, perhaps he was good at engineering like Tony?

A taller, balding white man was standing in the middle watching the young hero with an amused look on his face. Why they weren’t fighting, Steve couldn’t guess. “Spider-Man, what are you doing?”

“I need to build something to stop the spiders!” He called back. Steve knew he wouldn’t be able to help with that, he was no good with technology.

The bald man interjected, “Hah! You think you can build something that will interfere with my glorious robots? Think again, all you superheroes are all brawn and no brains! You’ll never succeed!”

Spider-Man just mocked him, “ _yOu’LL neVeR sUccEED_ , yeah, well jokes on you, I already have everything I need.”

The man looked aghast as if Spider-Man had just done the impossible. “Why you-“ he started to approach the young hero but Steve made a quick move to jump in the way.

“I may not be good at building like Spider-Man or Stark, but I sure as hell know how to fight!”

“Thanks Captain America!” Spider-Man called out after seeing the older hero defendhim

Steve turned around to look at the device that was being built, “No problem, son. And call me Steve.” What he said seemed to startle the young man as he almost dropped the device. Slowly, he looked up at Steve, the lenses on his mask were wide with an emotion Steve couldn’t quite place. Just as fast, the young hero looked back down at his almost finished device.

A sputtering noise came from the balding man when he saw the (working?) mechanism, “How are- you can’t!” He stumbled backwards. Steve followed him, pushing him to the edge of the platform.

He put his wide hands on the man’s skinny shoulders, “We can’t what?” He got no response from the villain, “Why are you doing this anyway? You should have known we would stop you!”

“Yeah, because you had so much luck stopping people in the past. How many have died in your previous battles, huh? You heroes think you’re all that and I just wanted a chance to discredit you. You aren’t worthy of your powers!” He spat vehemently and in a cruel manner which assured Steve that all of the Avengers were far more worthy than this man would ever be.

“I found the frequency! And it’s loading in three, two-“

The man pulled out a gun faster than Steve’s eyes could catch and aimed it at the device. Spider-Man’s reflexes seemed to be faster than Steve’s as he thrusted the device behind him. However, while the bullet missed its mark, it hit Spider-Man in the stomach. The young hero cried out in pain and Steve knew then, that that cry was one of a child’s. Whose child had he dragged into this mess? Regret flooded his systems as the realization of what he had done hit him.

In his moment of weakness, he didn’t notice the villain slip out of his grasp and pull Steve with him as he jumped off the edge of the platform. “Why?!” Steve screamed over the rushing of wind in his ears.

“Because now the people will realize that you were not so infallible as they thought,” he let go of Steve and let the wind take him on his own course.

Steve looked up at the platform and was surprised to see a string of web being shot at him. It landed on his shoulder and he grabbed onto it. He watched as Spider-Man, still bleeding out, pulled him up, despite his pains and Steve’s weight.

Now Steve knew that no matter Spider-Man’s age, the hero understood the consequences and the importance of life. He regretted his mistrust of the young hero who had likely saved them all. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the giant robot had stopped demolishing the borough.

After many long heaves on Spider-Man’s part, Steve found himself back on the platform. The villain had fallen to his death. Both of the heroes, for all they were worth had been unable to save him.

“Where’d he go?” Spider-Man asked innocently and Steve hated that he had to break the news.

“He pushed me away when we were falling, he- didn’t make it.”

A guttural noise released itself from Spider-Man’s throat and it was remarkable how much the hero could care for someone who had hurt him so, "No, no, no. This can't be happening." Spider-Mancurled in on himself and instinctually, Steve leaned over to put an arm around him and pulled him close.

He could imagine exactly how the young boy felt. When aliens first attacked New York City, Steve felt the need to take on every life list as his responsibility. It hasn't been a healthy practice at all, but he'd already seen death in the war. Even if Spider-Man was a hero, death musty be fresh in his young mind and so the responsibility even harder to take on.

It was in this reverie that Steve heard the familiar tone of Tony's suit and the landing of the metal boots on the platform. He heard the frantic footsteps -a loud clanging on the thin metal- and felt as the suit went away and Tony pulled the young hero from Steve and into his arms. Steve watched this display of fatherly affection and he knew right then and there that the kid he'dbrought into this fight had been Tony's.

"What did you do to him?" Stark hissed over Spider-Man's shoulder.

But Steve didn't- no he couldn't- respond as he was in such shock. And so he stayed silent and he watched Tony step back into the suit and carry the now limp hero off into the distance of New York. This had been Steve's fault.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long for me to upload. I was in the desert for a long five days and then when I got back I had so much to do (a presentation for my Biomimicry class!!!). Thanks for being patient.  
> Jesi~


	6. Peter Can Help Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor and Bruce need help getting around New York City, Steve is an unintentional stalker, and Peter does his best to put everything back together

“Helen!” Tony called to the empty room in the tower, “Helen, I need you right now!” His kid could be dying in his arms and he was completely helpless to do anything about it. It wasn’t like he could exactly fight the gunshot wound.

Quickly, the Asian woman rushed out into the main hall. Upon seeing Peter in Tony’s arms, suit and mask still on, she ordered them to her workspace. Tony couldn’t call it an office, nor could he call it an operating room because it was really a mix of both. He laid Peter down on an operating table then let his own suit retreat into his clothing.

“Tony, I need you to get him out of this now!” She commanded, referring to Peter’s Spider-Man suit, with all of the authority of a military officer hidden beneath a fragile exterior and masked by a pretty face.

With shaking hands he swiped down Peter’s chest and the suit came loose. Helen gently pulled off the mask and threw it to the side of the table, on the floor. Tony tried to pull the suit off but it seemed welded to Peter’s skin where the wound was. A slight whimper was released by the younger hero when he pulled against it. Tony looked up to Helen Cho who softly cursed, she pulled out a sponge and ran it under the faucet and then handed it to Tony. The sponge was warm and the water dipped down his bare wrist then off his elbow. Tony could feel everything and nothing; he made no effort to wipe it off.

Helen Cho once again took command, “Put this on the area that’s stuck and once the suit is loose, continue pulling,” Tony did as he was told.

Once the suit was off, he found he couldn’t look away from the bullet wound. It was a deep red and still gushing blood. The engineer wanted to look away, the wound made him feel sick because who dared to do this to his kid? Tony had dealt with gunshot wounds before but he didn’t know why this one was affecting him so much. Because it was Peter? Helen took a quick step around the table; she grabbed his hands -which were still holding the bloody sponge- and pressed them down onto the wound. When Peter made another soft whimper he wanted to pull away. _This must be too much pressure, we’re hurting him._

However, when Tony tried to pull away, Helen kept his hand steady, she snapped at him, “Pull yourself together, Tony, or we’re not going to be able to help him!” She waited for his dazed look to disappear before pulling away her hands; he maintained the pressure.

Tony didn’t realize the doctor had walked away until she returned with gauze and a metal table full of tools. Helen quickly exchanged his blood soaked sponge for a inch thick pad of gauze. In the brief second that the wound was uncovered, Tony was able to register that it was bigger than just a bullet wound -there was a two and a half inch rip right below the main puncture. The sight horrified him because it meant that the kid had kept fighting even after being shot.

“You’ve done well, I’ll patch him up as well as I can Tony,” the engineer made no response, “You should go,” She whispered as if talking to a child. Had Tony been fully aware, he would’ve started something about how he wasn’t a fragile doll that needed coddling, but the image of Peter’s wound still rang through his head. He couldn’t think clearly.

He wobbled backwards before picking up Peter’s mask and then left the sterile room. Tony only left to be in the next room over, numb from fact that his kid had been so injured. He had to call May, call the kid’s school, he had to- Tony had to figure out what had happened, “FRIDAY, can you pull up all of the footage involving Peter starting after I left for Japan,” as Friday gathered footage from the tower’s cameras and from Peter’s suit, Tony sat down on a couch and put his head in his hands. How could he have let this happened? Wasn’t he supposed to be watching over the kid? Isn’t that what he had promised May?After just half a minute, FRIDAY was ready and a holographic screen was pulled up in front of him.

Tony watched as Peter milled around the penthouse before eventually picking up a book Tony had never seen before. When Steve’s voice came through the speakers, Tony’s hands clenched with anger. Of course it had been Steve who okayed the teen’s entrance to the battle. He lost sight of Peter until the teen put the suit on. And from then on, it was all fighting and close calls. At least, until Peter got shot.

In an odd way, Tony was beginning to wish he’d never installed cameras in Peter’s mask. Of course he was constantly accessing the footage contained for purposes including upgrading the suit or making sure Peter hadn’t somehow hacked Karen to stop her from alerting Tony of his injuries. But now? Now he had to watch, from Peter’s perspective, how the teen was shot so he could stop the giant robot plaguing the city. He watched Peter’s hand reach for the wound and then retract it sharply, only to have a slick string of blood follow. He watched, horrified, how Peter leapt to the side of the platform to save Steve from plummeting to his death, only to learn that the other man had died. Then he was all caught up, but he wished he could forget the break in Peter’s voice when he found that he hadn’t saved everyone, or the soft whine that came from his heaving Steve’s dense body up multiple floors with a gunshot wound- his skin tearing all the while.

In an odd way, Tony wished Peter wasn’t a superhero at all.

 

Peter woke up confused and it wasn’t because he was in his room in the tower. He’d been staying with Tony for around a month, his Aunt May agreed to it after Peter got shot and Tony had become especially protective. Sometimes it felt like she was trying to hand Peter off to the billionaire: not in a ‘I don’t want you’ way, but in a ‘Tony would make a great dad for Peter’ kinda way. It was really weird. So no, Peter wasn’t confused by his room.

He was confused by Bruce, who was sitting in the corner of his room reading a book. Peter sat up quickly, “Dr. Banner?” He said, in a dumb sort of manner because of course that was Bruce, who else would it be?

The doctor looked up at him from the book and smiled, “Peter! Hi! Thor and I just got here from New Asgard. How are you doing?”

Peter groaned and laid back in bed to spite his usual mannerisms, it was too early for this, “I’m fine, why?”

“Well, we heard you got shot!” Bruce exclaimed as if it was a great travesty. But to Peter it felt so inconsequential in his life. He had a Calculus test on Monday!

“That was like, a month ago!” Peter said, he really just wanted to go back to sleep. Th teen looked up to see Bruce’s confused face,“I heal fast.”

Bruce nodded, “Still, I want to know how you’re doing,” Bruce left hanging in the air.

Getting out of bed, Peter walked over to the doctor and pulled up his shirt so the scar was visible -Helen Cho had done all she could to reduce the scarring, and they all thought it would fade because of his healing, but when it didn’t they assumed it was because the hole had been ripped beyond fixing, “It’s barely a scar, I mean, I had to get stitches but it’s all good and-“

The doctor held up his hand, “Not what I meant, I mean, it’s great that you heal quickly, but bodily injury isn’t the only effect of being shot.”

Peter worried his lower lip, was Bruce talking about how he was doing emotionally? The younger hero wasn’t sure if he wanted to share that with the older man, “I mean, I’m not having nightmares or anything. It wasn’t as scary as -as some of the other things that have happened to me,” _like having a building collapse on me_ , “and staying with Tony has actually been really nice.” Peter let go of the side of his pajama shirt, letting it fall back down.

“How about your mood? Have you had less energy or more irritability?”

The teen looked to the side, flushed, “Only in the morning, I’m not the best when I wake up.”

Bruce laughed, “Okay, I can get that,” he stood up and gave Peter a pat on the shoulder, “Look, I heard Tony was making some breakfast,” Bruce stated as if asking Peter to join them soon.

“Okay,” Peter let out a yawn, “I’m just going to sleep for another ten years but see you when I wake up?”

The older man headed for the door, “For sure, I’m looking forward to your twenties,” he joked back, “Never would I have thought that Tony Stark would be making anyone breakfast,” he trailed off, seemingly talking to himself.

Peter was grateful when he closed the door behind him. The soft clicking put him at ease before he collapsed back on his bed and buried himself in his sheets.

He let his hand trace under his shirt to the scar, the gunshot wound itself was puckered and aggravated, but the tear beneath it was just a curved line: barely raised. He fell back asleep thinking about when he woke up from the surgery: a blur of Aunt May, Tony, and a tall woman who Peter had never met before. 

 

“Is Tony still not talking to you?” Natasha asked, looking at the blonde super soldier. They were in some artsy cafe down in Queens and Steve was moping into his coffee. After the battle that happened in Queens and all of the buildings that had been destroyed, the soldier had offered to help clean up the damage. His strength was instantly put to use.

“No, but I just want to know how the kid is doing,” he said sadly and Natasha felt bad for him, truly. The kid had apparently saved his life at the risk of his own and Steve had no idea how he was. But Natasha was _also_ worried, through the training lessons she’d gotten to know the younger hero up close. He was a sweet kid, albeit a bit quirky, but someone she wouldn’t have minded meeting out of costume.

“I heard Bruce and Thor are back in town, maybe they know what’s up. I think they have a room at the tower right now,” Clint added in helpfully.

Natasha tilted her head towards the archer, “Do they even know Spider-Man?”

The spy grinned as if Natasha had fallen into some sort of trap, “Yeah! I think Thor took him to space or something, look there’s video!” He whipped out his StarkPhone and opened the video (which he had saved in his pictures for some reason). It was a grainy video, shot from a distance and on an iPhone, of Thor approaching the young hero and them both being swallowed by the rainbow which the god had told them was called the Bifrost.

“Huh,” was all Steve said. Natasha looked at him to see that he was in deep thought. Maybe there was something she could do to ease his worries.

She took a sip of her coffee, “Clint, we’re going to the tower today,” she stated.

Clint looked at her suspiciously, “We’re not going to break into Spider-Man’s room again, right?”

Ignoring Steve’s protest to their previous actions, she responded promptly, “No, we’re just going to find out how the kid is doing. I care about him too, you know,” she paid no mind to the two men’s shared grin and finished off her coffee with a quick gulp. They would have to finish up fast if they wanted to catch all of the Avengers before they left.

 

Natasha didn’t expect to find Tony, Bruce, and Thor to be sitting at a dining table to be so casually eating breakfast. Homemade apparently.

“And then he flew the plane into the building!!” Thor exclaimed excitedly, recounting some adventure that Natasha wasn’t privy to. Everyone laughed, but Tony seemed a bit uncomfortable with this information.

“Stark!” Natasha called out. The engineer’s head turned sharply towards her voice, he didn’t look as oppositional to her as she thought he’d be. That meant he probably wasn’t mad at them as she’d thought.

“Nat,” he said in response.

A grunt came from her left, “Wow, Clint, you’re here too!” Barton said to himself.

“We need to talk -about Spider-Man,” she ordered.

As if on queue, a doorway from the side opened to reveal a groggy teenager who Natasha had definitely never seen before. Or had she? As she studied his movements, she noticed they seemed very similar to Spider-Man’s. Despite his tired stumbling, he moved in such a way that gave away his body’s natural balance. Natasha wouldn’t pry further, but felt like the information she’d come for had just fallen into her lap.

Tony got out of his chair, and ignoring her went over to the brown haired boy, “Hey Pete, we weren’t sure you were going to wake up till noon,” Tony looked down at the boy with a fond smile and ruffled the kid’s hair.

“I wasn’t planning on waking up for the next ten years actually,” ‘Pete’ informed him very matter of factly, he looked up at Bruce and they smirked at each other. Clint let out a snort and said something about it being some sort of mood.

With a roll of his eyes, Tony stepped away from the kid, “Go get yourself some breakfast, I made pancakes.”

“Awesome,” the teen walked over to the table and then Thor got out of his seat to give him a hug.

“I am overjoyed that you have awoken!” The god shouted, dramatically, “You must regale me with tales of your past journeys!”

Tony ignored the scene at the table and strode over to the two spies, “Let’s talk about this on the couches,” he said and led them over to a sectioned off part of the large room, his happy exterior fading fast.

Clint whistled, “Ritzy~”

As they took their seats, Tony started the conversation right off the bat, not bothering with any small-talk, “What do you want to know?”

Natasha couldn’t wipe the grin off her face when she responded, “I think I already know enough, but Clint, what did you want to ask?” she leaded on.

The archer simply looked at her with a confused gaze, asking his question to her with no words, “Yeah, um, we’re pretty worried about Spider-Man, how’s he doing?”

The engineer sighed, “He’s doing fine. As you’ve probably noticed,” Tony shot a glare at Natasha, “He hasn’t gone out as Spider-Man yet, I’ve had drones take care of his patrol, but his wound healed pretty quickly.”

“Steve wants to talk with him, he’s been-“

But Tony cut Clint off before he could finish, “No way, it was Steve’s fault that Spider-Man got hurt in the first place, no way am I letting that bast-“ Tony took a deep breath, “him near the kid.”

Clint protested, “C’mon Tony, he just wants to apologize,” he whined, but Natasha knew it wouldn’t work. She doubted anything they said would work. Tony was furious.

“No!’ He snapped and the room seemed to get quieter, “In fact, I shouldn’t be letting any of the Avengers near him, you’ve all taken him on dangerous missions with no consideration for his well being. Hell, even T’Challa practically kidnapped him without notice. Him, Thor, and Bruce I’m fine with, they got the Aunt's okay, but you guys-“ Tony was seething but he lowered his voice in all seriousness, “You three took him out, _knowing_ he was younger than you, and put his life at risk, if something had happened to him with those spiders-“

Natasha felt Clint tense up beside her as he started up, “Look, Tony, Spider-Man’s competent enough to take care of himself, I don’t see what’s the big deal.”

“Well so are you, you shouldn’t have needed his help! Don’t think I don’t know about how you shimmied your way into his room or how you took him to _Colorado_! At least Natasha’s been giving him lessons, but everyone needs to stop putting their problems on him. He’s just a kid, he should be focused on kid things like school or friends or I don’t know what kids do but that’s not the point. You guys didn’t even ask.”

“Ask what? For permission?” Clint bravely asked, “It’s not like you’re his dad,” he scoffed.

Tony stiffened up and for a second, Natasha questioned everything she knew about Spider-Man, but then, “No, he’s too good to have ever been my kid.”

Natasha elbowed Clint in the stomach, “We get it, and we won’t do it again. But can you at least let Steve talk to him?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever trust Steve to even get near the kid, so no.”

She let out a sigh, Tony was pretty stubborn with this. She couldn’t remember a time when the engineer had ever been this protective over a person, not since he was together with Pepper. Where did those two stand now? That was a question for another time.

“We’ll leave then,” she settled.

Clint grumbled at her willingness to leave, “Okay, okay, but who’s the kid? Is he yours?” He butted in.

Again, at the mention of kids, Tony stiffened, “No, Peter is just an intern.”

“Uh-huh, and that’s why he’s staying here and eating breakfast with you, I’m totally convinced,” Clint said sarcastically, but didn’t press any further, nor did Tony try to defend himself.

“We’re going to go now, enjoy breakfast, Stark,” Natasha added, with no real venom in her tone. She watched as Tony walked back to the table, suddenly all smiles again. Natasha sent Clint on his way and ignored his protests, she had one last stop to make.

 

Peter was feeling guilty. He had heard the conversation Tony had had with the two spies -he literally couldn't _not_ hear it with his enhanced senses-and he wished there was some way he could reach out to the super soldier. But he did understand Tony's points (after having heard every one of his hundreds of arguments over the last month it was hard to _not_ see his way), he knew Tony was worried with him and maybe Peter should've pushed back against the dangerous missions. However, it still wasn't Steve's fault he got shot. Peter had been the one to shove himself in the way of the bullet and he'd _seen_ Steve try to stop it. But maybe Tony was just ignoring that fact, Peter knew the engineer had watched the video.

"Tony, you have raised your son well, I must commend you on his brilliant hot beverage making skills," Thor announced, referring to the mocha Peter had made for him.

Peter went red when Thor called him Tony's son, but before he could say anything in response, Tony took it in stride and thanked the god, giving Peter a not so subtle grin as if this was all part of some masterful plan. And maybe it was, after Peter had gotten shot Tony had instantly taken him in and really become more of a father figure (even going as far to personally pick him up from school when Peter got a headache from sensory overload). He thought back to his chat with T'Challa where the king had told him that Tony might think of Peter like a son. His hopes soared at the memory.

"Of course he's good at it, if I don't have my five cups of coffee per day I could die!" Tony claimed dramatically and the whole table laughed.

“That’s not a very healthy habit, Tony,” Bruce scolded the engineer. But it didn’t seem to affect Tony’s mood at all. “Hey Peter,” the doctor said, addressing the young man, Peter turned his head, “Would you like to show Thor and I around New York?”

Peter nodded his head aggressively, happy that the two superheroes wanted to spend time with _him_ and not just Spider-Man, “Of course!

As soon as they all finished their pancakes (Peter had ten), Peter headed back to his room to get ready for his day out with Thor and Bruce. He had plans to show them all around New York and Tony had shoved way too much money (and Broadway tickets?!) into his hand to take them out with.

However, Peter found himself taking a bit longer than he had thought he would when he found a letter on his bed of his own stationary addressed to Spider-Man. He picked it up and twirled it in his hands. He started opening it when-

"Peter!" Thor called out for him. Peter stowed the letter underneath his pillow, he didn't know why he was hiding it, and made his way out to the two older men.

 

Thor hadn't been too worried when he heard Peter had gotten shot. The Avengers were constantly getting shot at, surely it was a commonality here on Earth? But when he saw Bruce's worried expression he began to get worried, maybe this was more of a problem than he'd thought. So he'd confronted Bruce about it before they all sat down for breakfast, and learned that getting shot had many more repercussions than just the physical ones. Bruce told him about anxiety and Pee-Tea-Ess-Dee a clinical term for a disorder which sounded similar to what many Asgardians went through after a particularly traumatic fight. However, when Thor saw the young hero, he seemed just as happy and unbothered as before. Now he was taking them around the city which he called home.

"How is your fierce aunt?" Thor asked as they walked down the street to what Peter called the Square of Time. It had sounded like it would be a very interesting place, but was really just a crowded street lined with stores.

"She's good, and since I've been spending time with Mr. Stark, I hear she's been dating. Which is sort of scary I guess, I'm going to have to give them the shovel talk," he said, puffing out his chest.

Bruce snorted at the kids antics but Thor was ever confused, "You are going to offer to dig them a hole?" He guessed, clearly wrong as his two companions started laughing at the god's ignorance.

"No, it's basically a talk that father's often gives to their daughter's dates that basically goes along the lines of 'if you hurt her I'll kill you,' it’s mostly an empty threat," Bruce explained.

"I understand. If you need any help, you know who to call," Thor offered. Peter blushed and thanked him. Was he embarrassed?

Peter came to a halt in front of a red carpeted room and grinned, "We have to go in here!" He said excitedly but Thor didn't understand why. Peter moved them to the side, "I'll buy tickets but you should all wait here!"

The room they were in was mostly red and plush with gold trim. It was definitely an entrance hall and Peter had stationed them in from of a curving marble staircase: only blocked by a soft rope and a woman in a security outfit. To their left was an unmoving person, their phone aimed to take a ‘selpho.’ If that was what it was called. Despite their smooth skin and their glistening eyes, Thor wasn’t entirely convinced that she was,,, real? It was weird to say that about something so unmistakably human but not an inch of her was moving and Thor was starting to think it was a robot in disguise. A group of girls gathered around her and all pulled out their phones in the same manner, Thor watched as they stood close enough to touch but only marveled.

“It’s almost like she’s real you guys!” One girl said and Thor felt at ease that he was not the only one with such thoughts.

Soon after the girls were let in through the rope at the bottom of the stairs, Peter returned holding three long strips of paper, “I got the tickets!” He surrendered his papers to the guard at the stairs and they were let in. Thor’s heavy boots sunk into the carpet lining the marble but he followed the young hero into what may as well have been a trap. At the end of the stairs was a giant mask, it was green and wearing a crown. It was easily as tall as Thor and he could only imagine it came from a long defeated enemy of earth. However large the enemy might have been, Peter’s smile was no doubt the biggest he’d ever seen. They gathered in front of the mask and another lady took pictures of them; the flash was blinding.

“Oh I’m definitely buying those pictures!” Peter exclaimed.

Bruce laughed along, “Yes, I think I will get a copy or two as well,” Bruce looked at Thor and the god stared deep into his eyes, “We can hang them up in your house.”

“I would greatly appreciate that, but who was that?”

Peter grinned, “That was the Statue of Liberty, you’ve probably seen her while flying. The French gave her to was after she was finished and we put her on an island. I’d take us, but tickets are literally impossible to get!” He whined.

“Could we not just fly there?” Thor asked curiously.

The young man paled, “No, they have a lot of security around it and I’m pretty sure they’d shoot at us. And we can’t ask Tony because I know he’d find a way to ‘rent’ the island for a whole day.”

Thor thought about this information, why did Peter not accept Tony’s efforts to be a good father? It was all very confusing. What was more confusing was that if this Liberty Statue was once an enemy of Earth, why would they keep it so close to their biggest city? Maybe the humans were much braver than he thought.

 

Peter was feeling giddy. It wasn’t often that he got to pull pranks on people -and while this wasn’t exactly a _prank_ \- it was most definitely one of the best tricks he’d ever pulled.

He was positive Thor had no idea what this place was, because what other species made wax sculptures of themselves and kept them all together? At least, Peter hoped the humans were the only species with anything like Madame Tussaud’s because if not he was feeling pretty bad for the universe.

They were walking down a walkway to the main exhibit, and as Thor was lost in his own thoughts, Bruce pulled Peter to walk just a little in front of the god. “This was an interesting place to come, but you know neither Thor or I or going to recognize any of these people,” Bruce said, referencing how many celebrities took place in Madame Tussaud’s.

“That’s not really why we’re here, there’s a special exhibit that I _know_ you’ll recognize, plus, I want to know what Thor thinks this place is,” Peter said snickering.

The god, at the mention of his name, sped up his pace to catch up with the two scientists just in time for the three of them to enter the first room. It was dark with a royal blue carpet. The room was quiet but for the clicking of the occasional clicking of the camera. All around, almost every five feet, was a wax figure, some more accurate than others. Their walkthrough was quick but Peter recognized a few faces (Johnny Depp, Scarlet Johansson, and Morgan Freeman) before they continued through the exhibit. The figures ranged from celebrities to important political figures like Barack Obama, but Peter could tell that the god wasn’t recognizing any of them. Which was okay, this isn’t why he brought them.

After they were done with the _main_ exhibit, Peter pulled them aside so he could grab the tickets again.

“This is a very interesting place, you humans are very strange but I found it very enlightening,” Thor said, surprising the doctor.

Bruce looked over at his companion, “What could you possibly find interesting about this place?

The god puffed out his chest, feeling a bit attacked by Bruce’s question and ready to defend himself, “Well, I think it is fascinating that you mortals have entire buildings dedicated to the shells of your invaders. What were they before, aliens? Robots? It is very brave of you to display them so openly,” Thor stated. He must have thought that the wax figures were ‘trophies’ from past battles, like taxidermies. Which was a bit of a frightening thought because that did actually seem like something humans would do (but Peter shuddered at the thought of taxidermy Hitler).

A cough turned into full out laughter from the doctor who had obviously been trying to mask his idea of Thor’s belief. The god looked at Peter for explanation but Peter had started laughing as well.

After the laughter came to a still and the two scientists had regained their composure, Peter began to explain, “This isn’t a- whatever you thought it was. Actually these are sort of our heroes, and movie stars? And they’re made of wax, so definitely not real.”

Thor looked at him with a confused face before scrunching it up, “I take back what I said about you being brave, humans are just weird.”

“We know,” Peter shot back, grinning.

Bruce scratched the side of his cheek where he had light scruff growing in that Peter hadn’t noticed until now, “I would’ve thought that there would be one of Tony,” the older man mused.

Peter’s grin broke into a smile, “Oh, but there is, we’re not finished yet!” Peter said ecstatically.

“What do you mean?” Bruce tried to ask but Peter was already dragging them to the end of the exhibit. Yet again there was another rope and guard blocking their way, Peter handed the guard their tickets. She scanned them and let them past the rope to the exhibit. Peter looked back at his companions, he was practically vibrating with happiness, looking up he saw a large sign hanging above it read, ‘The Avengers!’

The two men stared at it in disbelief before moving on. Peter couldn’t believe that he was getting to go to the exhibit with two members of the actual Avengers! It felt surreal.

“Ah! It is you!” Thor practically shouted, pointing at a Spider-Man wax figure. Peter quickly put a hand over the god’s mouth but it didn’t stop everyone else (just around ten people) from looking at the group.

“Sorry, I dressed up as Spider-Man last year for Halloween and now he won’t stop with the nickname. Haha, how could a high schooler ever be Spider-Man? It’s ridiculous!” Peter was going to keep rambling off all the ways he couldn’t be the hero he was when Bruce put a hand on Peter’s shoulder. No one was paying attention anymore and Peter was talking to himself.

He laughed nervously, “Bruce, will you take a picture of me with- with myself?” He asked, a laugh hiding just below his words. The doctor agreed and did what he was told.

The next figure they saw was the Hulk. Bruce stared up at it with a disassociated interest, “Do I really get that much bigger?” He asked, never really having had a grasp on how his body changed.

Thor stepped up behind him and looked at the formed green wax, “About, but I must say the Hulk is much kinder than they have portrayed.”

Bruce looked at Thor with a strange look, “The last time you saw him, we tried to fight each other.”

The god coughed indiscreetly, “Um, we _did_ fight each other,” Thor stated, then turned to Peter and whispered, “I definitely won.”

Peter just nodded, maybe he should have thought more about Bruce before taking them to the museum. Perhaps this was a bad idea. Maybe they should just- “Hey!” They have a wax figure of you as you!” He said ecstatically and pulled Bruce to stand next to it. The plaque next to the wax figure’s head, it offered a small blurb on Bruce’s achievements as a scientist and mentioned Bruce’s seven PhD’s.

“Good to know someone thinks I’m more that just a big, angry, green monster.” He said, clearly trying to keep emotion out of his voice.

“I don’t think anyone thinks that about you,” Peter said softly.

The doctor looked at Peter as if trying to solve a puzzle; alas, there was no puzzle to solve. Peter had been speaking his truth. Bruce didn’t say anything, simply allowing himself to mull on the teen’s words.

“There is your father, man of spiders!” Thor exclaimed and pointed as a wax figure surrounded by another small group of five people. The trio waited for them to be done with their pictures before stepping up themselves. On the left of the wax figure was a plastic model of the suit Tony had worn maybe a year or two ago. They looked at the figure but-

“This can’t be Mr. Stark,” Peter said determinedly.

“It definitely is. It looks just like him,“ Bruce countered.

The younger boy just shook his head, “It looks so, so wrong.” He finished with a grimace on his face.

“It’s probably because you see him as many people do not. Not everyone has seen Tony devour a Cup n’ Noodles in less than a minute, Peter,” Bruce amended but couldn’t manage to remove the frown off of Peter’s face. He decided to push them along.

Right onto Thor’s stony face, suddenly Bruce understood what Peter was talking about. It _must_ look like Thor, but there was none of the god’s causal goofiness hidden in those plastic eyes. It was wrong.

“Wow!” Thor shouted, expressing delight, “I’ve always wanted to face another me. I wonder if he is as formidable as I,” Thor glanced at the wax statue as if marking it for strengths and weaknesses.

“Thor, its still just wax. You can’t fight it because it won’t move. And even if it did, you’d probably be able to take off its head with a flick of your pinkie finger.” Peter tried to explain.

“Hmm, I suppose you are right man of spiders, he does not look very strong at all.”

The last figurine on display was Captain America. Peter felt his spirits go down at the absenceof Natasha and Clint, his two favorite spies, in the exhibit, but puffed out his chest towards Captain America. It had only been a month since he’d fought with the super soldier, but it felt unreal, as if it had never happened. There was a video on YouTube of Spider-Man pulling up the heavy soldier before Iron Man arrived, but Peter hadn’t watched it. Not even when Ned so generously provided the link.

He wondered if he would ever earn the chance to fight with him again. Tony seemed pretty adamant about making sure Peter never even _met_ the hero again, but that just didn’t seem right. He’d essentially risked his life for the soldier, shouldn’t he be able to check in to see that it was worth it? Peter was at a loss for the answers and staring at the wax statue of a man he barely knew wasn’t helping.

The two older men noticed Peter’s internal struggle and simply moved him away from the statue. Last stop would be the movie. It was supposed to be a ‘4-D’ experience with shaking seats and a a 3-D glasses to go along. When they got to the theater however, Peter was bouncing so much in his chair that he doubted he’d feel the rumbling.

But once the screen came to life, he came to a still of expectation.

~

Thor was feeling unsatisfied with the ‘animation’ -as Peter had called it- of the avengers. They had fought ‘doom bots’ and their lines didn’t make any sense. Bruce hadn’t even been in it, which made Thor slightly upset because the Hulk had all the screen time. When what was supposed to be his brother came on, Thor had to laugh because of how ridiculous his fake brother’s actions had been.

One confusing part of the film had been when Spider-Man was actually a reporter who went by the name Miles Morales. Peter had tried to explain that because he had a secret identity, no one knew his name or age, but Thor tried to argue that they shouldn’t cast anyone as Spider-Man’s identity because there was only _one_ Spider-Man and it was Peter Parker.

According to the younger man,a comic book series had started to record the Avenger’s fights and really taken off, even Spider-Man had been introduced. Peter had no idea how they figured out he was a science nerd but was glad it was a part of the ‘character.’

Nonetheless, Thor much rather enjoyed the real people to the movie’s portrayal of them.

~

Steve recognized that what he was doing was wrong, but with the loss of his trust issues came an unabashed ability to eavesdrop. Especially when it came to the safety of his other Avengers (ones that he hadn’t seen a very long time, mind you). While he didn’t think the scrawny brown haired kid sitting with Thor and Bruce posed a threat to the immortal beings, he’d rather be safe than sorry.

The brown haired kid was on his phone, typing away furiously. Steve didn’t think he’d ever be able to type that fast on his own phone. Tony had given him a StarkPhone (which apparently this kid had too) and told him that even _babies_ could use it, but Steve was still having trouble hitting the tiny intangible buttons. 

“Who are you texting?” Bruce asked conversationally after Peter put his phone down on the table. The doctor often seemed uncomfortable with Steve, the super soldier wondered how the doctor had become so at ease with this kid.

The kid let out an exasperated sigh, “Mr. Stark,” Steve’s ears perked at the name of the engineer, “He expects me to send him paragraph long texts, like, every two hours. I think he’s just a bit paranoid.”

Steve tried to wrap his head around this information, why was Tony so worried about this teen all of a sudden? Stark usually liked to keep their reports as short as possible and hardly ever read their emails (not that they sent out a lot), so what was so special about this kid?

“I think it is sweet that your father cares,” Thor remarked, and Steve’s head was swiveling. Tony really had a son? Could this skinny kid possibly be Spider-Man? “When I was young, Odin sent me out to fight and sometimes I did not return for days but he didn’t quite mind,” Thor continued.

Bruce and the kid looked at each other as if Thor had said something odd, but as far as Steve could recall, Thor was constantly spouting strange information like that. Could it be about something else?

“Yeah, but it’s getting a bit suffocating. Ever since, y’know, he’s just been a lot more-“ the kid opted to slam his head on their small table instead of continuing his sentence and Steve was really confused. What kid called their parent such a formal name?

“Yes, Peter, how is your wound?” Thor inquired.

‘Peter’ slowly rose from the table and looked at the god before slowly lifting his shirt and turning so Thor could see whatever it was. Steve was in an inopportune location to see whatever they were talking about.

“It took longer to close up than I wish it had, and it left a bit of a scar because it tore,” Peter explained. Steve tried not to think about what kinds of dangerous activities kids these days were getting into.

“Is that normal? Bruce made it seem like getting a shot wasn’t a normal occurrence,” Thor asked politely.

Peter quickly corrected him, “No, I didn’t _get a_ shot, I got _shot_.” Steve choked on his water, what was Tony’s kid getting himself into? Thankfully they ignored his near death experience and continued on with their conversation, “But no, getting shot isn’t exactly normal. Usually only criminals and bad guys get shot, oh, and soldiers! I’m just a special case,” he promised.

“Even so, you shouldn’t let Spider-Man take over your life. He may be cool, but don’t forget about your own social life and school work and what not.”

Peter saluted as if taking orders, “Sir, yes, sir. But its all good, Ned was always my best friend so it’s like, Spider-Man _is_ my social life?”

Bruce scoffed, “I’m sure you have more than one friend.”

But Peter didn’t say anything back and Steve felt for him. He was always the scrawny guy and no one was friends with him except Bucky. Peter must be best friends with this Ned -Spider-Man character. But how old did that make Spider-Man? Maybe Peter could introduce them, Steve still felt a strong urge to apologize for how his actions ended up with Spider-Man getting shot, for how he couldn’t protect the younger hero.

“I mean, maybe Michelle? But she’s sort of intimidating, I guess I just don’t really fit in,” Peter said in counter to Bruce’s assertion.

“Are we not your friends, Peter Parker?” Thor asked boldly.

Steve watched as the teen turned bright red in barely any time at all, “Of course you are, I mean, if you think we’re friends. I don’t know know why you’d want to hang out with a kid like me, but so far today has been fun: seeing Madame Tussaud’s, shopping, going to see that musical, even Thor illegally taking us to the Statue of Liberty was a bit thrilling if not mildly terrifying.”

Peter took a deep breath before continuing his ramble, “And of course I’ve always wanted to be friends with the _Avengers_. Did I tell you about the time I went to a convention and Mr. Stark saved me? That was really cool. You’ve all been my heroes for so long and now I’m getting to meet all of you, it’s like a dream. I mean I haven’t really met Captain America yet but once Mr. Stark lets me, wow!” Steve listened fondly, the kid was really enameled by all of them. 

Peter’s phone buzzed and he picked it up instantly, “Oh shoot- we’ve gotta go back to the tower, Aunt May is there for dinner and she wants to cook!”

Thor paled, “Oh no, you’re absolutely correct young Parker, we shall head back immediately!”

The doctor laughed, “Her cooking can’t be that bad, right?”

The teen looked at him, suddenly taking on a serious tone, “Look Bruce, I’ve lived with her for almost ten years, and let’s just say, I had to pick up cooking pretty quickly to actually be able make something edible. Just pray she’s not going to make her Lemon Chicken because that’s a one way ticket to your grave.”

The trio grabbed their paper cups of coffee and headed out the door, Thor offering to use the bifrost and the other two quickly declining. It gave Steve a moment to think about Peter _Parker_. Why didn’t he have his dad’s last name? Why did he live with his aunt so long? Steve hated to have so many unanswered questions.

 

Peter had no idea how Mr. Stark had done it, but somehow, the older man had been able to intervene halfway through Aunt May’s rendition of Lemon Chicken and salvage it. Peter had been impressed and glad to actually have food to eat.

But now, he sat in his room -cross legged on his bed- holding a thin letter in his hands. After the long day, he’d honestly forgotten about how he’d shoved it under his pillow. He only found it after he laid down and heard the crinkle of paper underneath his pillow.

With no idea where it had come from, and no recognization of the writing, Peter felt wary of opening it. But his curiosity always got the better of him and he couldn’t resist opening up the envelope. The paper used was blank, with no lines and the note itself didn’t take up much space. Despite the neatness of the handwriting -it was almost feminine- the letter definitely seemed rushed.

It read, “Peter, I know you’re Spider-Man. Call me tomorrow night at (XXX) YYY-ZZZZ. -Natasha.”

Natasha, also known as Black Widow, knew he was Spider-Man. That was a lot to take in for Peter. The letter she had placed in his room had been so short but held so much information. A way to contact her for one! But what could she possible want from him that could happen in a phone call?

He would have a lot of time to think about what they would talk about before their phone call and he could already feel the anxiety building up in his abdomen.

Maybe he should tell someone about this. He could call Ned or he could call Shu-

As if on cue, a buzzing came from his bedside table. It was his kimoyo beads. He never took them out of his room because if he lost them, or they were stolen, it would mean an incredible amount of lost information about Wakanda which didn’t bode well with Peter.

The lanky teen reached over and grabbed them, quickly accepting the call to see Shuri’s face appear in front of him. “Hey, Shuri!” He chimed happily.

She didn’t respond, but rather, broke into a long story about how she had been talking with Bucky and needed Peter’s help to give the older man a crash course in all things internet and meme. Apparently it was a terrible travesty that older man didn’t understand her, “Look at all these chickens,” reference and she needed Peter’s help to make the best compilation of memes and vines so that they could slowly acclimate the soldier until he was finally able to understand Tier Three Memes. Peter took all of this in for a second, not ready for such a vomit of speech, but smiling along. He was always glad to have made friends with the Wakandan head of technology.

“Of course I’ll help! By the way, can I reach Bucky with these? There were a few questions I wanted to ask him,” Peter happily agreed.

Shuri nodded her head, “Yeah, what’d you want to talk about with him?” She asked curiously.

Peter felt his hand reach of to grab the back of his neck, “Well, I don’t think I told you, but a month ago I sorta got- shot?” He told her like a question. Because, yes, he had been shot, but, no, he was not ready for her reaction.

“Peter!” His friend exclaimed, already scolding him, “I thought we talked about taking better care of yourself! And then you go and get shot!? How could you have let this happen?”

Suddenly feeling sheepish, he started with the event, “Did you hear about the giant robot spiders that attacked New York?”

Shuri’s face transfigured from one of scolding to one of shock, “That’s when you got shot? I knew Spider-Man had fought in that battle but I didn’t know you got so injured!”

“Yeah, Captain America called me to help and then there was this weird exchange that happened on a platform and I got shot trying to protect the device that turned off the spiders and then Captain America fell and the wound got torn trying to save him and now Tony is making me stay with him and refuses to talk to Captain America but I want to talk to him and I was hoping I could talk to-“

“Stop! I get it. And Peter, haven’t you heard of this thing called breathing? Or punctuation for that matter? I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a long run-on sentence, like, damn,” she remarked and Peter felt himself go red. He didn’t say anything back, though, just gave her a simple nod.

“But I understand, I’m sure Bucky would be able to tell you a bit more about what happened between Captain America and your dad,” she told him.

Peter groaned, would they ever get tired of this? “He’s not my dad,” he whined. He couldn’t understand why everyone kept making that comparison. Like, sure, he might think of the engineer as a father figure, but did everyone have to keep calling him- that? Peter didn’t think so.

“Whatever you say, but if I were you, I’d take what I can get,” Shuri said, rolling her eyes, “Well, is there anything else going in your entirely dramatic life?”

Peter thought about it and shifted on his bed, when the letter crinkled beneath him. He must have dropped it when he went for the kimoyo beads, “Actually yeah,” Peter held up the letter for Shuri to see, “Black Widow found out who I am and wants to talk with me tomorrow.”

“Maybe she wants to blackmail you!” Shuri said excitedly, and a bit too happy at the prospect of Black Widow threatening Peter.

The teen hoped not, but also “That isn’t something she’d do, at least to me.”

Shuri squinted at whatever camera was projecting her image, “Because she gave you training lessons?”

“Not necessarily, I think it’s more because she doesn’t totally hate me.”

The princess opened her mouth to respond but all of a sudden a loud noise came from her end, she quickly turned her head and “Brother!” she called out.

Peter shifted and T’Challa came into view, “Ah! Peter, how are you doing today?”

“Pretty good,” Peter answered awkwardly. Despite the conversation they’d had in Wakanda and how the man had all but kidnapped him, it was hard to forget that he was still a king.

Shuri glared at Peter, “Don’t believe him, Peter got shot!”

“Like a month ago!” Peter shot back, they didn’t have to make a fuss over him, “I’m fine,” he tried to assure Shuri’s brother.

However, his words didn’t seem to relieve any of T’Challa’s worries, “I believe you, but tell us about these things. We all miss you, even Sam does.”

Peter briefly thought about the Falcon, he’d been pretty stubborn but so had Peter and the teen was glad to hear that their last reconciliation had been lasting.

“Actually Peter, I had been hoping to talk to you,can you please ask Tony to sign the last of the papers I sent him? He doesn’t seem to be reading his email,” T’Challa reported.

Shuri and Peter laughed, “Yeah, that sounds like Mr. Stark, I’ll make sure to bug him about it for you,” Peter promised the king, who simply nodded and bid his adieus. Peter turned to look at Shuri and grinned, “We _have_ to show Bucky the Avenger vines!”

The princess tilted her head, confused, “What do you mean by that?”

Peter grinned, “A lot of people have like, taken previously made vines and then just edited the names of different Avengers onto them and they’re so funny! Bucky’ll love them!”

She cackled, “YES! That sounds perfect!”

 

Steve didn’t think what he was doing could be considered ‘stalking’ per se, but rather it was more like he and the kid just happened to be going in the same direction and Steve kept a manageable distance from him. He’d first seen Peter leaving the nearby high school all alone while Steve had been walking to his apartment, and then they just kept going in the same direction.

At least, they went in the same direction until the kid -Peter- made a sharp left turn into an alley. It was dark and damp and Steve felt sort of worried for the kid. So, of course, he turned as well to make sure that the kid was safe. He wasn’t expecting to see Peter facing him with a glare.

“Why are you following me?” He barked out, and then in the instant after, he seemed to recognize Steve, “Wait, oh my gosh, you’re Captain America!” Steve let out a long exhale, feeling off the hook until- “Still, you’re acting a bit creepy, man. And I don’t believe for a second that we’re just ‘walking in the same direction,’” the teen said, scrunching up his fingers to mock quotation marks.

“Uh- but I was- er,” Steve felt at a loss for what to say. His apartment really was only a block away, but he didn’t necessarily want to show it to Tony’s son. As far as he knew, he’d kept the whole thing pretty under wraps and no one knew where he lived. So he went with Peter’s assumption, “Actually, I was hoping to talk to you, about Tony,” Peter made no move to prove Steve’s suspicions, “Your dad?”

Quickly, the teen’s whole face burst out in red, if not for the situation Steve might have laughed. “He’s not my da-“

But before the high schooler could say anything against what Steve was positive about, he interrupted, “I need your help!”

Peter quickly settled down, seemingly understanding the severity of the situation, “With, er, Mr. Stark?” Steve didn’t try to rebut Peter’s disowning of Tony, but could tell he was lying. This kid, sort of like Steve, couldn’t lie to save his life. Funny how he was Tony’s son.

“Sort of, you’re also friends with Spider-Man, right?”

The kid took a step back deeper into the alley, was he scared? “Look, have you been stalking me? How do you know all of this?”

“No, no, not at all!” The soldier was quick to assert, “I overheard a conversation you had with Thor and Bruce, no stalking involved.”

“Except for today,” Peter tried to point out.

Steve sighed, “No, I was just walking to my apartment,” he looked up to see that Peter seemed to believe him for whatever reason despite his earlier claims, “Look, a while ago, Spider-Man and I were fighting together and he got shot. Now, Tony won’t let me talk to him. I just want to check in and make sure he’s healing well. Without your friend, we probably wouldn’t have won so quickly. Or at all.”

Peter’s face softened as if he understood where Steve was coming from, “So all you want is to talk to Spider-Man without Mr. Stark finding out?” He summarized for the soldier.

“Yes,” Steve agreed without any hesitation.

“Well, um, Spider-Man is going to start going on patrol again, and- actually, do you have a phone?” He asked politely.

The soldier nodded and handed him the StarkPhone he was so deign to use. Rather quickly, the kid returned it to him, “I put in my contact, so I’ll send you a text when he next goes out.”

Brightening up, Steve hastily agreed and looked at the contact of ‘Peter Parker.’ All that was there was a jumble of numbers with the same area code that Steve had. “Looks good, and um- maybe don’t tell your dad about this?” He queried, grateful when Peter nodded, his blush back at full speed.

“I won’t, but he’s still not my-“ the kid groaned, “Whatever, just know that you don’t have to stalk me anymore.”

Before Steve could protest, the kid was walking past him and around the corner. But when the super soldier looked out at the street, he was nowhere to be found.

 

“Wait, so Captain America actually thinks you’re just Tony’s son and Spider-Man’s friend?” Natasha asked into the phone incredulously. These kinds of miscommunications rarely happened in her life, but she guessed that was what happened when you had a secret identity.

On the other side of the phone, she heard Peter’s resigned voice utter out a simple, “Yes.”

She and the younger hero had only been talking on the phone for roughly three and a half minutes, but Peter had already managed to update her on all the drama that had happened recently.

“This could actually help us,” Natasha said, looking around the coffee shop she was in for anyone who might even _talk_ to Steve or Tony.

Peter seemed confused, “How so?”

“I think we need to help them reconcile, it’s clearly affecting the unity of the team.”

The teen made an awkward noise, “How are you going to do that?”

“Not just me,” Natasha was quick to correct him, “Us.” Not waiting for any response, Natasha laid out her plan, “You said you can get in contact with Bucky Barnes, right?” Peter let her know she was correct, “Well, you need to find out what happened between Tony and Steve during their fight. Then we need to orchestrate a chance meeting between the two, but you’ll be there to make sure they don’t fight.”

“Is this mandatory?” Peter squeaked out.

“Yes Peter, no matter how awkward it gets, you’re the common ground between them. Captain America probably wants to apologize to you and Tony’s basically taken you in as his kid-“

“He has not!”

The spy just scoffed, “So are you or are you not currently living at his house and eating the food he makes an-“

The teen relented, “I get it! I don’t necessarily agree with that statement but I guess it makes sense. I just don’t know why everyone thinks Tony would want a kid like me.”

Did Peter seriously not understand? “You’re Spider-Man.”

“Yeah, and I do incredibly reckless things all the time, I spend my nights fighting people and then I come home with bruises, I got a building dropped on me, I abandoned my date for prom so I could crash a plane!” He insisted, “I’m pretty sure I’ve almost given Aunt May at least five heart attacks!”

Natasha paused a for a bit, making sure he was done. “And? You do all of it so you can help people. Don’t think I haven’t done my research. There are videos upon videos of you doing things like helping old ladies get back to their apartments, teenage girls who you stopped from getting raped, a truck driver who’s truck you lifted up after it was turned upside down in an attack. You’re probably the most selfless kid out there. You actually save lives. Now tell me this, who _wouldn’t_ want a kid like that?”

Peter didn’t respond. For a second Natasha thought that maybe he was just thinking about it, but then he hung up with a quick, “I’ll call Bucky as soon as possible.” Natasha wished there was something more she could do to help his self esteem.

 

When Peter didn’t return from patrol on time, Tony started to get nervous -this was the first patrol Peter has done since he was shot. And what could the teen possibly be doing? Or what could have happened to him? Perhaps these were feelings that all parents got for their kids, but Peter wasn’t his and Tony wasn’t the average adult.

“FRIDAY, where is Peter right now?” He asked, mindlessly stirring his coffee.

“I’m accessing Karen’s network right now,” there was a pause, and then a ding to sound out that she had completed the task, “Peter is currently in Queens. After patrolling for an hour, he stopped on the roof of a nearby apartment building and is currently talking to someone.”

“As Spider-Man?” Tony questioned. The whole scenario made sense until Peter got to the rooftop. Despite Peter’s numerous helping encounters, he always had a reason to talk to someone. This, however, didn’t seem to fit the pattern. “Who is he talking to?”

FRIDAY hesitated, and the AI only ever learned to do that when it was about to give Tony information he wouldn’t like -he reckoned she picked it up from Rhodey, “Steve Rogers.”

The engineer dropped the mug he was holding as if it had burned him, “Open the windows facing East, I’m heading out,” and as FRIDAY did as he asked, Tony suited up and heading to pull his kid away from the super soldier he usually did his best to avoid.

Soon enough he was flying over the city towards the borough most tried to avoid. FRIDAY was giving directions through the speaker in his mask and the screen in front of his eyes, until he saw the two heroes himself. He then proceeded to land on the building, placing his metal covered body in between them.

“Look, Steve, I don’t know how you managed to set this up; but I said no and I meant it for a reason. You’re toxic and I don’t want you near my kid!” Tony barked towards the other man.

“Mr. Stark,” Peter stressed, “He was just apologiz-“

Tony let his mask retract back into his suit, “I’ve heard that before - his apologies that is. Once after I found out that he had been protecting the man who killed my parents and hadn’t told me, and then again after he came back begging to be on the team once more. Pe- Spider-Man, Steve isn’t the Captain America you grew up hearing fanciful stories about; he’s ruthless and only works in his own favor. Kid, he tried to kill me,” Tony insisted.

Steve sputtered, “As if you didn’t try to do the same!”

“Look, I’ve rewatched the footage over and over again and every time I ‘tried to kill you,’ I gave you a warning. You, on the other hand, tried to smash my face in with your shield the first chance you got,”

“Well, maybe I was just a bit _angry_ that you were trying to kill my best friend!” Steve shot back.

“Like you’re one to talk about anger, I-“

“Can you guys stop fighting?” Peter’s voice demanded from behind Tony.

Surprised by the kid’s sudden burst of ire, Tony turned to look at him, “Kid, you just don’t understand what happened down there,” he said, lowering his voice. Just because he was angry at Steve, didn’t mean he had to take it on Peter.

“No, I _do_ know what happened,” the two men looked quizzically at the vigilante for an answer, “I asked Bucky, and he doesn’t want you fighting either,” Peter admitted.

Tony looked back at the super soldier to see his reaction, but clearly Steve had had no idea that Peter had done so -his mouth was hanging open a little and his blue, blue eyes were wide. Shaking off Steve’s reaction, Tony turned back to Peter, “Just because some old guy in Wakanda told you he doesn’t want us fighting, doesn’t mean I have to let my kid hang out with this guy,” Tony warned.

“He’s not your kid, why do you keep acting like he is? You shouldn’t have any control over what Spider-Man does,” Steve butted in and maybe the super soldier wasn’t trying to be offensive, but that’s how Tony took it. Because sure Peter wasn’t his son, but that didn’t mean Tony couldn’t defend him as such.

Peter seemed to look betrayed and Tony shot Steve a glare, “Says who? You? Things have changed since Siberia. This kid is the closest I’ll ever get, or want to get, to having a son!” Tony yelled at him. He didn’t know what was making him tell the truth, maybe it was the adrenaline coursing through his veins or his stubbornness wanting to prove a point to Steve.

“So you’re just going to forget about Peter?” Steve cried, clearly scandalized.

Tony winced, did Steve know more than Tony thought? Clearly he thought Peter and Spider-Man were different people, but what _did_ he know about Peter? Or think he knew? Could Tony somehow use this to his advantage? Maybe he could-

But Tony’s thoughts were interrupted by an annoyed groan from the hero behind him, “I’m so over this secret identity thing,” Tony swiveled around to stop what he thought was happening, but before he could do anything, Peter was taking off his mask with a strained smile.

“Peter?” Steve shouted, clearly aghast and surprised, “So he _is_ your son?”

“No!” The teen shouted, “I don’t know how you got the idea that Mr. Stark is my dad, but that’s not a thing, as much as I wish it was. My real parents died in a plane crash almost ten years ago. And sure, I’m just a high schooler, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see when two people are trying their hardest not to like each other. From what I’ve heard, you guys actually used to be _friends_!” he said as if it were some big scandal, “If you hadn’t been, then why would you guys have gone out of your ways to help each other so much?”

The two older men looked to one another and Peter continued, “Now, you guys are just making up reasons to hate each other. I think you guys are already over this, because if you weren’t, you’d still be fighting and throwing punches meant to kill.”

Uncomfortable with the teen spouting off truths that were meant to deface their anger, the two men shifted back and forth. Tony thought about the kid’s words for a second, “Even if we are able to forgive each other, what do you want us to do about it? We can’t exactly go back to the way things used to be,” Tony said, defending himself. In the background, he heard Steve utter some sort of agreement.

“Of course not, people change all the time and relationships are sure to follow. It’s like my friend MJ and I. When we were younger, our parents knew each other and would set up play dates between us all the time. We swore we would marry each other. But then she moved away and my parents died and we didn’t meet again until high school. Now? Sure we’re friends, but she’s also more sarcastic and the leader of the Decathalon Team. Do we want to marry each other any more? No, she’s got a girlfriend! Sometimes, relationships are _meant_ to change.”

Tony looked at Steve, could he really build up another relationship with him after they’d gone at each other’s throats? Maybe he could, for Peter, “Okay, but no way in hell am I marrying the Star Spangled Doofus.”

“You wish you could, Shellhood,” Steve teased him.

“Shellhood?” Tony asked incredulously, “What am I, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?”

“Hey! They’re not _that_ bad,” Peter said, trying to defend the fictional squad.

Tony just snorted, “Not even _Megan Fox_ could fix their brand.”

Steve laughed along and maybe Tony could get used to this. Peter had been right, this whole time he’d been so focused on the anger he felt in the moment, that he forgot about all the good times he’d had with America’s hero.

 

Little did Tony know, behind Peter’s mask lay most of the Avengers, they were gathered behind a screen, watching their two leaders finally reconcile.

“I told you Peter could do it without anyone getting punched,” Natasha bragged to Clint, who kept his head down and handed her a hundred dollar bill.

“He really is something, isn’t he?” Bruce commented.

“Yup, he followed the plan to the T.”

All who were present turned their heads to the spy, “You helped put this together?” Clint demanded, feeling cheated out of his money.

“Of course, when have you known me to take a bet I wouldn’t win?” She asked. The archer just cursed and left the room.

While the Avengers would always have their differences, and maybe they wouldn’t always get along, they were finally united once more.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long to update, and then when it did update it got deleted? That was probably my fault tbh. As you probably noticed, it's a bit longer than the rest and on top of that I got SUPER SICK in hte middle of writing it. Put that together with College Apps and just regular high school and you can see that I didn't get to write much (but I /did/ write a Cold Flash fic by accident (WHOOPS!)). Anyway, I hope y'all like it, and I hope it doesn't feel too rushed (because it really was at the end).  
> But yeah, 11,000 words, big rip (and I didn't find out I'm TERRIBLE at making 5+1's because this is more of a 5+4???  
> Oh, and I was thinking that I didn't write anything for Doctor Strange and so I came up with an idea and I might add it and make this some sort of series of people just, asking Spider-Man/Peter for help. So if you liked this, watch out for that, And feel free to leave a comment. To me, seeing a comment is like taking crack (not that I really know what that's like)  
> yeah, so that's that.  
> Jesi~

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked reading this, go check out my new fic "Not Who You Think." It's really a study in Eugene 'Flash' Thompson and the factors that led him to be the way he is and how he is working to improve upon himself. It all starts when he gets an exclusive tour of the Compound and ends up learning more than he had even imagined.   
> Jesi~


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